July 2015 – Sailing "Thanks Dad"

Towards the end of last season, while dropping the mainsail, I accidentally stepped on and cracked one of the handrails.

I decided to build a new complete set of topside hand rails to be a bit stronger than the originals.

There are 4 hand rails topside and 2 inside the main cabin.

I bought a piece of teak on eBay that was 60” x 1.25” x 5”.

I brought it to work and ripped it into 4 pieces 60” x 1.25” x 1”.

Ripped into 4 pieces

I routed the top corners, using my miter saw I put a 45 degree chamfer on each end and then rounded the bottom corners and sanded the entire hand rail using my orbital sander and 120 grit sand paper.
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Routed

Chamfered

Sanded

I used to the original hand rails to locate the mounting holes.

Drilling mounting holes

I brought them to the boat to insure they fit properly prior to varnishing.

Yeah! They fit!

I then put 5 coats of varnish on them.

Varnishing

The original hand rails were held in place on a threaded rod with a nut that was counter bored and capped .

Though the counter bore and capped is a nice finish, I decided that I wanted to make the new hand rails easy to remove. So, I bought stainless steel coupling nuts online from eBay and used them in place of the original nuts allowing me to use bolts from the top of the handrail to hold them in place.

Threaded rod