The PO had let all the exterior teal go grey. Think this will be the winter project. Here's the question: How to remove the handrails.
The teak bungs are missing, meaning the mounting hardware is visible. There seems to be about 1/8" bolts with a nut on top. Simple, right. Just un-do the nut and pul the handrail off. Here's the "but": there is no space around the nuts. Not even sure how they were tightened in the first place. Thought they might have been tightened from below, but can't find that end at all.
Any one done this before?
Chuck
Chuck,
The nuts were designed to be tight in the hole in the handrail so they do not turn. The screw is inserted from the bottom side and they can be removed from there.
Dale
Thanks, Dale. Trading one issue for another, as "now" the hardware is on the wrong side of the cabin liner. :( Visiting this weekend, so we'll take a critical look.
Any ideas, other then locating the spots & cutting through the liner? (then installing an access cover afterwards to pretty up the ceiling). That's 20 holes by my count (4 fore +6 aft) x both port and stb side.
Don't the cabin top rails tie in with handholds inside (that screw is behind a bung in the cabin handhold)? Or am I misunderstanding?
The top handrails tie in with the cabin rails. They are put together with fine thread machine screws. The nut is in the top handrail and a slotted screw is in the bottom. I believe the top rail is teak and the bottom is cherry or mahogany. There are various ways of getting the bung out with destroying the rail. You can buy replacements for the top teak rail but not sure about the bottom. One thing to know, when Pearson put these together they kind of eyeballed the hole between the two, so the hole they are not absolutely vertical which may be an important detail when putting these back together if you buy new teak top rails. I bought new handrails at D&R Marine, drmarine.com, because the Pearson spacing for the loops is different than standard rails. Maybe Dale sells these too.
Mike
Thanks for that Mike. When you replaced yours, did you replace the front handrails also? There's not an inner counterpart for them.
Chuck
I haven't replaced the front ones. I replaced the cabin top ones because there was a leak into the cabin. They were worn and I kind of (well actually did) destroyed one taking it apart. I didn't know which way the screws went, if the head was on the top or bottom, and if it was slotted , phillips head, or something else. And the wife was very upset about the leak on her head.
Yes... the screws were 10-32 (fine thread). Most Chandleries will not have fine thread if you loose one, we don't stock them either. Like most things on the boat they are also straight slotted head.
We make new teak handrails if you need them. The spacing between hoop to hoop does not match the "standard" teak handrails available on the market so they need to be custom made which is not a big deal for us.
Dale
Very timely topic for me.
Took my hand rails off this spring, cleaned them up & re-varnished. Put off re-installing them until after I'd stripped off the "non-skid" the P.O. had put on the cabin top. Now that's done I'd like to get them back on before the cover goes on.
When I removed the rails I marked them for position and even numbered the individual screws for position. Because the rails follow the contour of the cabin sides am going to need a helper to spring the rails to match the cabintop holes. Am wondering if I should slightly point the ends of the screws so they seek the center of the nuts.
Biggest fear is the fine thread screws cross-threading on the embedded nuts. Not looking forward to the job. Will bed with Sikaflex 505.
Rails on & bunged. Wound up bedding with butyl.
Did you install the eyebrow on the boat? I thought I was the only one who had that. The eyebrow lowers the look of the cabin house and lengthens the look of the boat. It also help keep rain water from dripping in open ports. Nice touch....
Dale
By eyebrow, do you mean the half-round teak trim pieces around the top of the cabin trunk sides? If so, those are original as-built; Amity came with the full teak option (such as it was) from Pearson. One thing I will add in the future (which Maruska has I believe) is a teak trim band that wraps around the fwd. end of the cabin trunk to complete the visual line.
Re-mounting the hand rails was a bear. The fine-thread screws were just barely long enough to catch the embedded nuts when the rails were put in place with the butyl under them. Had to have someone stand on the rail section on deck to squeeze out enough butyl to get the rails close enough to the deck for the nuts to engage.
Quote from: S/V AMITY on October 13, 2020, 11:34:33 AM
When I removed the rails I marked them for position and even numbered the individual screws for position.
On projects like this I will put the bolts or screws in a piece of cardboard in the same location they were removed. I find I need to mark everything these days. Nice job by the way.
Bob
It also helps in just plain finding the fasteners after a lapse of a few months.
I added the eyebrow and went around the front of the cabin in "Little Harbor" style. My eyebrow sits on the ledge that goes around the cabin top. To me it completes the look.
Dale
For the curve did you laminate teak strips to form? Did you match the section of the existing trim?
I cut it out of one piece, and it did match the profile.
Dale
Quote from: Dale Tanski on October 20, 2020, 11:21:25 AM
I added the eyebrow and went around the front of the cabin in "Little Harbor" style. My eyebrow sits on the ledge that goes around the cabin top. To me it completes the look.
Dale
We also have the original. And I've almost taken it off multiple times. I knew it looked nice, but the teak is also the original, and every time it rains, it bleeds down rotted bits of wood. But then I realized that none of our portlights leak. None. And I'm guessing that it's due to the eyebrows in no small part. So then I've been thinking of replacing it with something synthetic to match our new color scheme (darker of the colors, whatever that winds up being). I'm thinking of some kind of rub rail type of material, or even a PVC mold if I could figure it out. But yeah, I like that piece, and I love the descriptor 'eyebrows'.