Replacing a Toe Rail

[Aaron]

Diana, if you want a aluminum toe rail, ebay would be my best bet, im sure one will come up.
Another thing, is why does the anchor need to live in the well? On my old mans boat, he keeps his in the cockpit locker and carries it up the side dech and shackles it on, but im nagging him to get a double bow roller. Diana do not reduce your chain, anchors only work with chain, once the anchor is dug in it does bugger all when atleast 10 metres of chain is on the bottom, its all about chain.
Cheers,
Aaron

[Miker]

Hi all
I always thought tophats were moulded in one piece, no hull and deck join?? correct me if i am wrong !!
And thats a good idea make the well bigger, or a smaller anchor and more technique!!
Cheers Oberon 11

John, From what I remember, the Top Hats were moulded in two halves, then these were stuck together and partially fitted out before the deck was added as a seperate third mould. Hence there is the possibility of having a joint crack at the toe rail.

Someone correct me if I'm off the mark....

[Swift]

My Manson won't fit in the anchor locker either because Mk 1's don't have anchor lockers!

The good side of the huge roll bar is that it makes it easy to hang it from the pushpit. I made up some fasteners with a bit of rope and some old snap hooks. This was a temporary solution but it's worked well, so the Manson has been hanging there ever since. I wouldn't hang floppy a 35b lb CQR there but the lighter weight and better balanced Manson is no problem.

There's a hook on each side of the roll bar which provides lateral stability and one on the chain to hold the anchor down and back. When anchoring it only takes a few seconds to undo. With 3 hooks there's redundancy in case one fails and so far no problems with excessive movement in waves. Although I was thinking of a custom designed roller in the future I have revised my plans and now will simply improve what I have by replacing the small flat hooks with larger rounded snap hooks better suited to the task and tidy up the rope work.

Diana, it only takes about 5 minutes to rig this up and if you want to check it out then swing past my boat next time you go sailing.

Keith

[SeaLady]

John, when I dragged I had up to 20 metres plus of chain on the bottom, yes going in reverse, yes having other people doing the anchoring not only me.
Including Yachtmasters and one Yachtmaster instructor, Master 5's and Master 4's.

All who thought it was the stupid woman doing the anchoring that was the problem.

Dragged nearly everytime, unless it was so calm and quiet an anchor was almost not necessary.
Variable bottom from sand to mud.

So sorry after 6 years of trying all sorts of things, and then buying a new anchor and it holds everytime with only 7 metres of chain on the bottom, (I am looking at reducing the amount of chain as it holds so well) I doubt I can be convinced.

RE toe rail.

There are parts where the Toe Rail must have broken away before I got SeaLady and that area as everywhere else is completely watertight.

[SeaLady]

Keith I would love to take a look at yours.

How about I show you mine, you show me yours?

[Phillip]

I'm Not going to ask!
I'm not going to ask!
I'm not going to ask!

[Dolphin]

G'Day Dianna,
I don't remember if anyone asked you but that anchor that wouldn't hold, had it ever been regalvanised and if so did it still have the lead weight in the tip of the plough?
When people get the anchors regalvanised the lead weigh melts out of the tip. It also needs a sharp tip to dig in.
Greg.

[SeaLady]

No idea Greg.
But certainly possible.
The anchor came with the boat.
And for years I always blamed my skills, or lack of them.

The Manson Supreme is a very good anchor.
I doubt I will ever get anything else.

[Peter57]

HI Diana, I have just had a look at the top hat 25 with the sugar scoop that is advertised on boatpoint. He is the guy with the moulds for the 25 and 27. I will add some comments to the page that discussed that boat on this site. He in our discussion mentioned that the original join had about 2 layers of glass to join the deck to the hull and in that fantastic boat he has finished he did alot more. I suggest that it would be worth your while ringing him (his number on the boatpoint site - see top hat for $22,000) and if going to the trouble of replaceing the toe rail, add a few layers of glass first and then check the width of that before ordering a timber cap to go over it. As for anchors, many have stayed on the front as boats have gone around the world so don't see the problem. strongly bolted or tied in and no problem. Good luck

[Tales]

The deck/hull join on the MkII and MkIII is pretty robust.

The mouldings have a good overlap to bond to each other and a 'tab' is layed up underneath when the two components are joined to add to the strength.

The deck at the bow however is slightly different and doesn't have the same overlap. A thicker tab which goes right across to the other side is layed up but it is a tricky job working upside down in a confined space. Not all joints in this area are perfect.

The toerail is bolted through the overlap and it is important to make sure the bolt hole is sealed well to stop water ingress.

At the bow however as there is no overlap in this area, the toerail is screwed into the hull/tab lap and might even penetrate into the interior of the hull. Sealing the fasteners in this area is also advised.

Finally, as the deck is not overlapped at the bow, any big impact to the bow roller/headstem fitting can crack the filler and let water into the join. Many Top Hats have had repair in this area and when replacing the toerail there is a good opportunity to inspect and repair if necessary.

Cheers,

Tom

TH Deck & Hull Join.jpg (8.65 KiB) Viewed 6202 times