Question about installing handrails on Oday 22

[davidmhull]

My boat does not have handrails and never did. It is a 1972 model and I assume they didn't offer them in that year. I would like to add some but I do not know if there is enough space between the deck and the liner for standard screws ( by that I mean a screw long enough to get some meat in the deck but not long enough to dig into the liner). Has anyone had any experience with this or do you know if the screws that hold the handrail on are very short or what. Thanks so much for any information.

 

[Siamese]

Why not just go all the way through and use fender washers inside with acorn nuts?

 

[davidmhull]

Way too ugly for one thing. I don't think I have seen any installed on other boats where the fasteners came through the liner. I'm afraid that if I use what you suggest it will distort the liner terribly when I tighten everything down and take up the space between the liner and the deck.

 

[njlarry]

You can "hide" the fasteners by installing a matching handrail to the cabin ceiling inline with the deck handrail. Use bolts, not screws. Actually I think white acorn nuts would blend in.

 

[davidmhull]

That would work well if there was in fact no space between the liner and the deck. I think that if I had to take up a lot of space it's going to get difficult to make it look halfway decent. I'm certainly not opposed to acorn nuts in the cabin but taking up the space to me would be a problem. Are most handrails through bolted or are they screwed to the deck? The reason I ask is that I could cut holes in the liner and through bolt to the deck and then use a spacer on the rest of the bolt to make whatever I do on the inside flush with the liner (strip of wood, another handrail as was suggested etc.).

 

[Siamese]

Most are through-bolted. My Catalina 309 was bolted and had rails on the inside, too. My current Catalin 28 is through bolted, however the inside has large washers and large phillips head bolts that screw into the threaded stainless handrails. Looks shipshape.

To be sure, does your O'day have a fiberglass headliner? Is there solid core material between the upper/deck layer and the headliner? If it's a hard headliner and it flexes, then I suppose you're dealing with some airspace in there which makes it difficult.

IF...you have a fiberglass deck layer bonded to core, bonded to an inner fiberglass layer, an empty space, and a fiberglass headliner, I can think of at least one way to do it and make it look good.

Could you give us the details on how it's constructed?

 

[davidmhull]

Going out tomorrow striper fishing for two days. I will poke around and see what I feel under the liner. You know the handrails on the inside sounds pretty nice. I might look into that. Thanks guys.

 

[petite misere]

Hi, on my 76 the handrails were bolted thru . the liner had 1 inch holes with a plastic cover over it. The liner was in contact with the core witch was countershunk a bit for the washer and nut.
When I replaced the teak handrail for black Tevar 1000 (kind of starboard), glued and used the same holes with 2.5 and 3 inchs stainless screws and washers from Inside and put new plastic plugs.

 

[Brian S]

I have always heard it's best to through bolt handrails. There is potential to hang all of your weight on a handrail, and you certainly don't want screws to strip and let go...

 

[davidmhull]

Through bolt it is guys. Thanks. I think what I will do is drill down from the top and then use those holes on the inside to guide the drill on a small hole saw. I will then put a strip of teak on the inside to cover the holes. If I need to re-bed then I will just remove the teak strip. Went out Wednesday in 20k wind. Had a blast but had to sail heave- to in order to slow down enough to troll. Caught our limit and slept in a sheltered cove. Went out again on Thursday morning and much calmer. No problem maintaining 2k. Caught our limit again. Didn't burn a drop of gas. What Larks!!