Taking Measurements of Original Toe and Rub Rails

October 25, 2015

I'm now getting a little anxious when I go a few days without doing any work on Alva Anne, so I answered the call and at least did some prep work for the toe and rub rails.  I just needed an hour, man! C'mon, that's all I'm asking for; just give me an hour!  In fact, the hour was all that I needed to satiate this junky's need for a fix.  The kids were busy capitalizing on the new "elective chores" program - a way for the kids to help Dad around the home while earning some "mad money."  So with one vacuuming and one pressure washing the drive way, I took advantage of the hour and scratched some notes that would come in handy in the near future.

Turns out the toe rails are 1 and 1/8" in height, and 5/8" in width.  The length of the toe rails are 18' 1 and 1/2".  They are essentially a rectangular in profile, but with a slight round-over on the outboard and inboard sides at the top portion of the rail.  

The area where the jib track mounts to the rail was perfectly flat, as one might imagine, and stood 1/8" proud of the balance of the toe rail.  My thought here was that years of sanding and varnishing "eroded" the areas outside the jib track, thus creating the raised area that can now be seen.  My plans for the new rails will be to set the extreme height of the rails at 1 and 1/8", with a slight round-over, and then mount the tracks in their proper position on the rail.

I took note of the stylized portion of the rail - this is the aft portion as it transitions into the taffrail.

The underside of the rails also have a channel routed into them, and serves as a place for the polysulfide to ooze throughout and create a water-tight seal.

Next step is to begin to prepare the stock for fabrication - pretty mahogany will require a lot of maintenance...of well, "baby, your worth it!"

Total Time: 1 Hr.