Mph2400,
Good morning! Your post captured my attention as I, myself, have just finished replacing the toe rail on the starboard beam of a Tartan 30. The most difficult part for me was having to remove the teak railing in front of the toe rail before actually removing the screws and prying it off with a flathead screwdriver, and then going to a boatyard and removing the toe rail from another Tartan 30 that was painted black; thus, I had to sand it to get it bare, and then I put a coat of silver paint to match the port rail. I figured while I was at it, I'd remove the port rail as well and repaint it. Both rails look good as new, and I'm proud of that little project! All that's next is redoing all the teakwork and doing some fiberglass work on the deck. Toe rails are pretty difficult to find, especially if you need it a certain size. I did have a friend who owned a Catalina 27, and he ripped the toe rail off a Catalina 30 and just cut it to size. The flexibility depends on the make and quality of the rail; Hunter, for example, uses aluminum toe rails, or at least they used to, and they would bend quite easily, and were a bit of a pain to replace. The one I replaced on the Tartan was solid steel, and didn't flex at all.
