On Sunday July 17th, I put the finishing touches on the recently epoxied toe rail scarf joints. I had an issue with the port side aft joint after the initial gluing, so earlier on Saturday I had to take my smaller Japanese saw to the reopen the joint and epoxy once again. Fast forward to Sunday, and upon inspection of the second gluing attempt, all came out well. Now all that was left to do was to sand the joints to fair. In the picture below you can just make out the diagonal joint...finish sanding would take care of the remaining uneven surfaces.
On Tuesday afternoon, Steve and I (my enlisted support) prepared for the dry-fit installation of the toe rails. The first step in the dry-fit installation was to apply a measured fastener pattern to the rails themselves for pre-drilling of the countersinks for the bungs. Photo below is of Steve (Cheoy Lee owner, and live-aboard) applying a simple measuring jig to mark the pre-drill points.
Once we had the toe rails marked, we ran the entire port and starboard rails through the drill press (roughly 21.5' of length per rail), applying a forstner bit for the drilling of the bung holes.
After both rails were pre-drilled for the bungs, we began the process of the dry-fit installation. Starting at the port bow, the process was as follows: support entire length of the toe rail with two slings hung from the shelter, position the lead of the toe rail at bow, drill 1/8" pilot hole through the rail and into the deck, screw in #10 philips pan-head. Repeat about 30 times per rail working towards the stern. This is easier as a two-person job, though I have read plenty of installations that include but one soul...and several well-placed lines.
Here's how the rail fasteners appeared as we worked down the line.
Tuesday, July 19th, the toe rails were installed...well, dry-fitted anyway.
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