1972 E27-Fixing Everything

[alcodiesel]

"Thats a busy location in your boat!
Mine is almost empty under the sink."

I'm jealous.

[tenders]

That is odd. The bronze fittings and installation look pretty well-founded, but then a stock gate valve instead of a marine grade valve...?

[CajunSpike]

Saturday was a washout due to cold front moving thru the area.
Didn't go to the boat.

Went to the boat Sunday but the wind was so strong, would have been suicide to leave the slip.

Brought brand new marine battery to replace old auto battery as bat2.

Tried to get the portside cabin top handrail off in one piece.
Was not successful. Of the 7 bolts that held the rail in place, 3 were rotted thru and thru.
Was removing the handrail to try to refinish/repair it.
Since 93" teak is hard to get, seriously thinking of getting a piece of oak to replace the handrail.

Did start the motor. Cranked right up with a little choke. Sweet sound.
Thats about it for now.

[Ram41662]

Cajun, I feel you pain. Nearly all of the wood on my Newport was in some form of decay or delamination, so all of it is now off. Since I'm not one that feels the need for a lot of wood surfaces in my boat, the plywood inside is getting replaced with (sacrilege coming...) lower priced exterior grade AC plywood.

I'm planning on epoxy sealing the parts then giving them a few coats of polyester modified aliphatic acrylic polyurethane. Man, that's a mouthful, I could have just said Sherwin Williams Acrolon 218 HS, but that'd be no fun.

As for the trim, compression post, and assorted finish pieces, I'm planning on using red oak coated with low viscosity, non-blushing clear epoxy to assure its waterproof. The couple of projects I've done that to in the past have held up very well, so long as they're not exposed to sunlight. Epoxies hate sunlight. The epoxy works like "pumped-up" varnish with excellent moisture protection for all the interior wood.

On outside solid wood, like hand rails and trim, AwlSpar Varnish has been my goto. It works great and hold's up quite a long time.

[CajunSpike]

I'm a good mechanic but wood is not my strong point. Type of wood and best coating for outside use certainly welcome. I figure if I can get 10 years out of replacement handrails that would be good enough. Also found
'plasteak' that will make custom matched handrails with wood colored plastic material for about $1 inch. They will even cut it to match your existing rails.
Its a thought.

[ndutton]

Here's another thought

According to your post where you said each handrail had seven fasteners, that makes them six loop handrails. I have a pair of six loop teak handrails available in good condition. If it sounds interesting I can take some photos and we can proceed from there.

[tenders]

I’ve found those handrails very optional, myself. Took off the old weakened wood ones, had new ones made out of grey Starboard...and they’re still in my basement. Planned to countermount interior handrails to them...will be nice, someday, but other projects have superseded this for years. I find no boat activity less rewarding than the futility of maintaining exterior brightwork.

[ndutton]

Being contrary again

I see the handrails as essential. Part of my pre-flight briefing is to instruct guests that the lifelines are for decoration, the handrails are for their safety. With that policy the guest's weight is shifted inboard and low, the best possible position.

If you like your exterior teak kept bright (as I do) and detest the labor investment to keep it that way (also as I do), why not keep it covered? Mine is - all of it - and one varnish coat a year is sufficient.

[tenders]

Oh, you’re right, Neil, no argument that handrails are a useful safety feature. Handrail covers were one of my first sewing projects. They looked nice but added a few minutes to the underway/back in port routine so I stopped taking them off altogether. At some point somebody stepped on a rail and snapped it, and to my shock I realized while they looked OK there was no strength left in most of my rails after what was probably 35 years. The wood was weak and the fasteners into the deck were corroded (and not through-bolted). I took them off, filled the holes, had new ones made up and intended to replace them...maybe this was 2007? As a fair-weather day sailor I can’t say I’ve missed them. In any kind of wind we sail under genoa alone so there’s never anybody on deck in a blow.

[ndutton]

We certainly sail in different conditions. A typical sail here includes 20 knots + in the afternoons. When I ordered a new genoa two years ago I specified a 110, it's puh-lenty of sail for my area. And when sailing with neophytes it seems there's always one who wants to go forward.

I recommend the interior handrails you mentioned. Mine are great but not mirrored to the exterior handrails. They have their own separate fasteners and are slightly inboard.

[CajunSpike]

According to your post where you said each handrail had seven fasteners, that makes them six loop handrails. I have a pair of six loop teak handrails available in good condition. If it sounds interesting I can take some photos and we can proceed from there.

Interested. Measurements of what I have:

Total rail length - 93"
Loops - 6
Inside Length of a single loop - 9"
length of space between loops(deck contact point) - 6"
Number of deck contact points - 7 including ends.
Width of wood - 3/4"
Wood height bottom to top of deck contact point - 2 1/2"

Outside rail and inside rail held on by same threaded bolt.

Pic is the end of the outside starboard rail.
Check your measurements and lets see if they match up.


I also brought home the inside rail that matches up the outside rail that broke. So can do more measurements off that if needed.

The use of cypress as a rail material came to mind.

[ndutton]

Nope, not even close. Oh well, it was worth a try and look at all the shipping expense you just saved. I have a nagging feeling your substitute wood species will not survive the environment very long and you'll be doing this over and over again. Teak wasn't used just to be fashionable. The natural oil content in the wood made it superior for marine applications. Damn near impossible to glue though because of the oil, at least before the proliferation of epoxies.

[Ram41662]

Okay, stupid question, but has anyone opted for black locus or cypress for external woodwork? Both have superior rot resistance, both are more readily available than teak, and for the most part both are significantly lower priced. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison on strength between the the species to see if there is a significant difference, but on a quick look they seen to fall in the same approximate specs.

I was considering either before deciding on the AwlSpar finished oak. Part of the reason for picking oak is that there is a lumber mill that sells rough cut oak for a very good price near me.

[CajunSpike]

I found a local wood shop that has cypress.
That wood practically lasts forever.
Called them. They have 1x4x8 cypress boards 8 feet long for about $12.
Going for it.

[Ram41662]

From my woodworking days back in Florida, if you can get clear wood closer to the core, aka "heartwood", it tends to be more dense. It also usually runs a darker shade of red. I've used it for handrails for outdoor staircases that are still in service 25 years later.[