Coamings & cabin top grab bar installed

I've been quite busy lately with other things, so haven't had time to blog. But I have been taking pictures as I progress slowly towards the finish.

I did get the coaming sides screwed & glued in place. Lots of finicky work here as I work on fairing out the weird corners and angles.

Glued coamings. Be sure to put down plastic on the seats.

 The installation went fairly well with no major problems.

Once the coamings are in place, glue in the turn-in pieces.

This needs a lot of fairing

But it doesn't look too bad. Still a bit more cleanup to do.

I didn't get any pictures, but it was a real pain trying to get a small fillet on the underside where the bulkheads contact the coamings. I got something that is good enough; it will never be visible.

I made a cabin top rub rail. I ripped some 3/4" stock down to 3/8 wide to bend well. I shaved down the 3/4" width a bit to more like 11/16". It will have 3/8" brass half oval installed on top of it for decoration and rub resistance. I think I'll also place some 3/8" half oval on the transom cap.

Hint: If you try to order 2x 6' pieces of 3/8" half oval from JamesTown Distributors, they will try to charge you $50 shipping. However, if you order 1x 12' strip, they'll charge standard shipping. I think this is a mistake on their ordering form.

dry fitting the rail.

gluing after shaving and rounding over a bit. I also screwed in from the cabin underside.

I had some 14" ipe hand rails laying around from a deck we built, so I ripped them down into strips. They will make beautiful decorative rails. Unfortunately, ipe does not take stain or varnish very well because of it's density. I'll have to take care to get a good coat of oil on it each spring or it will turn grey. Grey may not be so bad though.

ipe rail

ipe rails on the coaming

Another shot of the ipe rail