Finishing Toe & Rub Rails + Sanding Cockpit Sole & Misc.

January 13, 2018

With a tight window to work within today, I got straight to Joule's rails in an effort to finish them up - well, get them ready to accept teak oil prior to installation on the freshly painted deck and topsides.  

I began by trimming the tails of the toe rails to a pleasing curve from the top of the rail to the surface of the aft deck.  I used a coping saw to remove the majority of the material, and then finished the finer detail with 40-grit paper by hand.  With the 40-grit paper, I moved down the top edge of both rails creating a chamfer on both the inboard and outboard edges.  Next, I sanded the rails by hand, progressing from 120-grit paper to 150-grit paper, sanding the inboard face, the outboard face, the top of the rail, and then blending the chamfer from top to sides.  I repeated the process for both rails using 120-grit paper as well as 150-grit paper.

Taking measurements off of the original toe rails, I laid out the installation for the new jib tracks - approximately 43" from the aft end of the toe rail. At this point, I just made pencil marks on the rails, with actual installation of the jib tracks to come in the final phase of installing the toe rails.

I then turned my attention to the rub rails.  With the rub rails running beyond the trailing edge of Joule's topsides, I made marks on the rail that mirrored the angle of the stern.  I then removed the aft few fasteners in order to cut off the excess rail.   

After repeating that process for the port side, I shaped the aft end of the rub rails to round over and soften the transitions.

At the bow, I again removed a few fasteners on the forward ends of the rails to be able to shape the ends to better fit into the stem fitting.  This was a matter of aesthetic flow...seeing the bottom edge of the rail in line with the bronze stem fitting. 

With the rub rails shaped, I removed them to the work horses below.  Like I had done with the toe rails, I repeated the process of the sanding the rub rails with 120-grit and then 150-grit paper to chamfer and soften the surfaces as well as the transition from outboard face to the bottoms and tops of the rub rails.  The rails were now nearly complete.  I will need to wipe with solvent and tack off the surfaces, and then apply the teak oil.  For now, I decided to cover the rails since the first application of topsides paint was due at any moment :)

Finishing the day required me to water-wash the remaining epoxy/fairing work done to the cockpit sole, poop deck and the base for the companionway slide hatch trim.  I moved across the surface of the cockpit sole with the RO sander and 80-grit paper bringing the surface to fair.

I spot sanded the areas of the poop deck where I had drilled-and-filled - isolating the new core from future fasteners, and potential water ingress more importantly. 

Finally, I sanded the previous fastener holes, opting to create a set of new ones for the new trim and new fasteners.  Port side base shown below...

....and the starboard base.

Total Time Today: 3.75 hrs