954 is very strong, stronger than
aluminum and certainly adequate if used in the standard sizes to match your track cars. I also cast my track cars but I would not recommend that without good reason.
The bar is cast to guarantee
cleaning up to the nominal dimension. The surface is a bit rough, but after removing all the roughness you have the size of material that you ordered, or a bit more. They can be as much as 1/8" oversize in thickness. I use a 36 grit
sanding disk on the angle grinder to smooth it out, finishing with finer grits will give a better polish if desired.
A 1" bar will not be very easy to bend regardless of the thickness. What size is your
jib? I would size the track based off what you have today or what a track manufacturer recommends, their metal isn't any stronger than yours is.
Here is a picture of a track I made for my
bowsprit, a little hard to see but you get the idea. I used bar that was a bit thin for the clearance needed by my track car, so I epoxied a 1/8" hardwood strip to the top of the
bowsprit for clearance. I would not recommend that, it is and extra step and
teak does not glue well.
You could do tracks for most of the
boat, but switch to a couple padeyes aft of the
cockpit where you are unlikely to need fine tuning adjustment. They would be suitable for lifeline mesh or whatever. For
jib loads, you will want through bolts holding the track if you weren't already planning that.
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