Re: [Cal_Boats] Custom handrails

Greg - was thinking about doing the same thing as I took mine off 2 yrs ago, varnished them within a week and they are still sitting under my bed LOL. Would you mind telling me how much that cost you? Feel free to send it to me directly if you like pwestla at aol dot com. Thanks - Paul In a message dated 1/26/2015 2:53:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com writes: We ended up going with stainless on the outside of our Cal 39 last summer. Railmakers made them to our specs and I love the fact that they will last forever. Greg Thanks, Chris, also an option, albeit probably the same in terms of labor and costs as the teak. But then no more varnishing... Greg, that's a pretty good price for teak. I happened to be at the same place on Saturday. Didn't even bother to look at the teak since I discovered afromosia and sapele which look really similar at about 1/3 the cost. Only bummer is they only sell in 8/4 or 4/4; 5/4 seems ideal for handrail width.Anyway, thanks for everyone's input. I think I'll go to Macbeath, pick up a small board of whatever looks good, and do a practice run of a couple small handrails which I could use belowdecks anyway. From: "ccampbell cc… [at] lsnm.org [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 7:50 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Custom handrails On 1/25/2015 2:17 AM, Adam as… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: I sadly had to demolish the old teak cabintop handrails on my 2-27 in order to address some leaks, and I'm now faced with replacing them. I'd like to replicate the layout (5 loops on 15" centers), which means a custom job is required. All the retail handrails I've seen are 10" centers, which won't do. I figure I have three options: OK, I'll commit a heresy and suggest there's a 4th option: stainless steel handrails. This is not something I'd usually suggest. My other boat has lovely varnished mahogany handrails that are consistent with all her other varnished mahogany. The visual effect is impressive. They're not going to be replaced with anything, thank you. That's my tsate. BUT... that important word... let's remember that handrails have two related purposes. One is just to give you something to grab to steady yourself a bit. That doesn't really require much strength. The other is to give you a grab-hold in very bad conditions. That's when failure of the handrail would be very inconvenient. I see pictures of new boats and racing boats with stainless handrails. They look really sturdy, so long as they are properly fastened. If you're faced with replacing handrails, maybe this is a rational choice? I'll note that my Cal 20 has the nice stainless cockpit rails, the ones the racers hate but that I love for the additional security they give the crew. Chris Campbell

Paul, If memory serves me (and sometimes it still does) we spent about $600 in total for two 9' ones for the main cabin and four 1' rails for near the forward and aft ends of the deck. They were made of 1 1/2" oval tubing with round standoffs welded in the middle of the long rails and the ends were just bent over. I had him weld 5/16 studs to the bottoms for attachment points since I thought it would be easier to try and bend the rails and shove the stud through a hole rather than trying to have someone thread a bolt up from the bottom while I was bending the rail. I've attached a photo of the long rail on the port side. Let me know if you cant see it and I'll send it off list. Greg Greg - was thinking about doing the same thing as I took mine off 2 yrs ago, varnished them within a week and they are still sitting under my bed LOL. Would you mind telling me how much that cost you? Feel free to send it to me directly if you like pwestla at aol dot com. Thanks - Paul In a message dated 1/26/2015 2:53:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com writes: We ended up going with stainless on the outside of our Cal 39 last summer. Railmakers made them to our specs and I love the fact that they will last forever. Greg Thanks, Chris, also an option, albeit probably the same in terms of labor and costs as the teak. But then no more varnishing... Greg, that's a pretty good price for teak. I happened to be at the same place on Saturday. Didn't even bother to look at the teak since I discovered afromosia and sapele which look really similar at about 1/3 the cost. Only bummer is they only sell in 8/4 or 4/4; 5/4 seems ideal for handrail width.Anyway, thanks for everyone's input. I think I'll go to Macbeath, pick up a small board of whatever looks good, and do a practice run of a couple small handrails which I could use belowdecks anyway. From: "ccampbell cc… [at] lsnm.org [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 7:50 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Custom handrails On 1/25/2015 2:17 AM, Adam as… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: I sadly had to demolish the old teak cabintop handrails on my 2-27 in order to address some leaks, and I'm now faced with replacing them. I'd like to replicate the layout (5 loops on 15" centers), which means a custom job is required. All the retail handrails I've seen are 10" centers, which won't do. I figure I have three options: OK, I'll commit a heresy and suggest there's a 4th option: stainless steel handrails. This is not something I'd usually suggest. My other boat has lovely varnished mahogany handrails that are consistent with all her other varnished mahogany. The visual effect is impressive. They're not going to be replaced with anything, thank you. That's my tsate. BUT... that important word... let's remember that handrails have two related purposes. One is just to give you something to grab to steady yourself a bit. That doesn't really require much strength. The other is to give you a grab-hold in very bad conditions. That's when failure of the handrail would be very inconvenient. I see pictures of new boats and racing boats with stainless handrails. They look really sturdy, so long as they are properly fastened. If you're faced with replacing handrails, maybe this is a rational choice? I'll note that my Cal 20 has the nice stainless cockpit rails, the ones the racers hate but that I love for the additional security they give the crew. Chris Campbell #d8d8d8;} 0;} 0;}