Question for you floating boat people.

[29cascadefixer]

It's coming up Spring here in a little while, and I'm planning out my boat fixens'. Got to thinking about toe rails. Are they really neccessary? Could save me some time and bucks here , maybe.

[delmarrey]

They are basicly used to seal the hull to deck joint. As well, they work as a topside backing plate to strengthen the hold for the fasteners so they don’t get pulled thru the fiberglass.

I'm not familiar with Cascades, so I don't know the construction, but if it had toe rails before you should probably replace them.

Mine has a toe rail/T-track combination that I can't find anymore. So I'll be glassing over the joint and then just replacing the T-track. I'm even considering putting in an upper deck stringer/cover board of mahogany, then putting the T-track on that.

How it your deck to hull joint configured? Does the deck wrap over the hull, come together in a lip or is the deck sitting on top of the hull lip.

[29cascadefixer]

Okay. This thing is built strong ( strongly?). To start with, there's what I call a deck shelf consisting of two to four layers of 1 x 4 inch Mahogany glued and bolted to the hull on 6 inch centers. These layers are also glued together. They come up to within 1/2 inch of the top of the hull. This 1/2 inch gives room for the 1/2 thick marine plywood deck panel, which is epoxied and screwed to the deck shelf and supporting members. Then a layer of glass cloth tape is lapped and epoxied over the deck to hull joint. This is followed by the deck cloth covering ( 10 oz. ) which is also brought over the hull to deck joint and epoxied. This is then followed by another cloth tape layer and another deck cloth layer, making a total of 4 layers of cloth at the hull to deck joint. The cloth tape goes down approximately 4 inches down the hull and 4 inches over the deck. The deck cloth is brought over the hull about 1/2 inch more than the first layer to sort of taper the transition . These guys BUILD these things.

[Alan Wheeler]

I am unsure just what you are wanting to achieve, but leaving the construction aside, as I think you have strength there. A toe rail is a handing thing to have. When heeled hard over and in perhaps some ruff stuff, it gives you something to put your foot against for support. It's hard enough hanging on as it is, and if you had a flush deck finish along the side, it could make life difficult. Thats if I am imagining this correctly.

[delmarrey]

The next question is, do you have fasteners between the deck and the hull?
4"s up on deck and down the hull could actually delaminate if the under side starts moving around.

I would agree with Alan a torail can save a lot of stuff going over the side including yourself. The link below are toerails that netting can be attached which I found keeps sails from going in the water when hoisting or dousing.
I don't have a furling system, yet.

http://www.rigrite.com/Hardware/Toerail/Toerail.htm

They also come without the small lower pendage for just flush mounts, but I must admit the stuff is not cheap. I'm just using T-track....._/)

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...71942&y=4&x=19