Replacing the teak toe rails

[Dick Villamil]

Appropriate for 4 1 11, I can't comment about the ease of installing slotted aluminum toe rails but I can provide you with information about enhancing the use of teak toe rails for sail adjustment. I am thinking of doing just that for my Typhoon. I will be drilling holes through the teak toe rails every 3 inches so as to attach some stainless anchor shackles (about 6 or 8 on each side should do fine). These shackles will provide excellent attachment points for the genoa turning block. As the wind increases and I need to furl in the genny, I will merely detach the turning block from one shackle and move the jib lead forward by attaching it to another shackle. This enables me to remain attentive to the proper genoa sheet lead position and optimum trim. It will be easy to do - just by using a 7/8" bit and drilling the holes to accept the shackle pin. You can then purchase a dozen or so of these shackles to provide multiple genny sheet lead positions! No need to bolt an ugly aluminum toe rail to that beautiful teak toe rail! They should also provide great locations to tie on some fenders - leaving them there permanently - just flip them over the side to tie up to the dock!

[Steve Laume]

Humm, it is April 4th already and considering the source and date of the original post we might assume it was a bit of a joke.

However if you are looking for additional attachment points along the rail you might do as I have done on Raven and add a long track. I now have sheet tracks that go from the midship cleat very nearly to the stern. Lots of opportunity for adjustments and more stuff on the rail, Steve.

[Russell]

Since this was an obvious april fools joke I didnt respond initially. But, in the case where someone happens to do a search looking for something useful, I do want to point something out.

Myself I have got so sick of varnishing the toerails on my CD. They really are a pain. Everything else is fine, but the toe rails suck. Especially spending several years in the caribbean with the tropics eating varnish like candy. I have always disliked the sythentic options available (cetol, armada, bristol finish, etc). But, I certainly would never rip off the teak and replace with aluminium toe rails.

So in case someone goes a searching, here is what to do. Strip the wood of whatever finish is on there, coat with epoxy, paint with polyeurethain paint that matches the hull.

Its practical, long lasting, and most importantly reversable. Sealing the wood with epoxy first ensures paint pigment doesnt get into the wood grain. So you can remove the paint, and varnish, cetol or whatever your choice (even over the epoxy no need to strip past the paint just make sure the wood is sanded to fresh color before you epoxy) and get the natural finish back. You dont have to worry about stripping past the epoxy, so long as you varnish over it (epoxy will yellow with UV, but varnish cetol etc will protect from UV if kept up). Use slow catalysts if you go this route, as they finish clear.

So there you go, a reversable way to get rid of your brightwook problems. I have not done this to my own boat yet, but I have come close. My reluctance is about how long I plan to own the boat. Several times in recent years I have come close to selling and buying a different boat. But as years go on I am getting more into the idea of painting my toerail. My boat is more about functionality then pretty though.

Oh, and while changing to an aluminium toe rail on a CD would be absurd IMO, I do absolutely love the usefulness and functionality they offer, but you are better off just buying another boat if that is what you want since resale value would be destroyed.

[SurryMark]

Re Russell's painted toe rails:

Well, I was carrying a quart of Kirby's paint up the ladder to put an honest color on the coamings, over the old orange cetol, when I thought I might as well have a try at heating and scraping the stuff. It worked, so I'll give them some coats of the new cetol "natural teak" and lay off the paint for a while. The toe rails? I may just go for the paint idea, over the orange cetol, though the epoxy undercoat is a good idea. Don't think I'd go for hull-color white, though. Maybe light green, or putty, or lavender. Absolutely nothing wrong, in my humble, with paint on a Cape Dory. (Russell's epoxy undercoat would let a subsequent owner go back to anything except Cetol.) The "natural teak" Cetol, by the way, has a clarity you don't see in the original or the light versions. It looks a bit like old varnish, well cared for. Not sure, but I believe that Robinhood is using the natural teak on their new boats.

[Russell]

Everything I have seen so far about cetol natural teak leads me to think it might just well be the solution to the woes of varnishing. It really does look terrific. I have always hated the cetol orange (hence why painting them white actually appeals more), even the cetol light always seemed too muddy looking to me. But cetol natural really looks nice, but its still too new and unproven for me to commit to stripping to bare wood and switching from my epiphanes high gloss. The heavy pigments in cetol as I understood is what gave it its durrability, the natural teak version obviously contains less pigmet, so how will it last? I honestly hope it proves to be far superior to varnish, and when I am confident it is, I will switch.