Attaching teak handrail to cabin ceiling with liner

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Mrabe
Bottom Sanding Grunt
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Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:36 pm
Boat Name: Seaquin
Boat Type: Pearson Triton

Attaching teak handrail to cabin ceiling with liner

Post by Mrabe »

New poster. I just bought a west coast triton which has a cabin liner and no ceiling handrails. How can I attach new handrails To the inside liner securely? I could fill the void between liner and cabin top with thickened epoxy and bolt from outside but prefer not to penetrate cabin top if I can. The cabin top has handrails but they don’t match the inside ones I bought so screwing them together a la James Baldwin on his triton website won’t work unless I pitch the top rails And buy new ones to make them match. Any suggestions? Can I tap epoxy for a bolt? Long time woodworker, little experience with epoxy and fiberglass. Thanks
Seaquin
Anacortes, WA
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markwesti
Almost a Finish Carpenter
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Boat Name: Patricia A
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Location: Long Beach , Ca.

Re: Attaching teak handrail to cabin ceiling with liner

Post by markwesti »

Hi Mrabe , welcome to the forum . I'm sure you will get the information you need here .
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atomvoyager
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Re: Attaching teak handrail to cabin ceiling with liner

Post by atomvoyager »

Congratulations on the new boat. I would re-purpose the outside handrails and install matching ones thru-bolted or with the lower ones screwed into the uppers. You might use the old ones on the forward coachroof or cut them down to put on either side inside the companionway. The liner is quite thin so not possible to get a screw to hold on the small surface area of the handrail base. Tapping fiberglass is possible but again won't work as well as a screw. The other option is to drill holes thru the cabin top and screw them in with #12 screws or bolt them with 1/4" machine screws. After I drill the holes at least 1/8" oversize I tape the inside and inject epoxy with a syringe to seal the core and fill any voids before redrilling. You can use a cup washer under the head and butyl so it doesn't leak and looks OK.

Another method that can work if you are dead set against drilling thru the coachroof is to install a wide backing board of at least 5/8" thick by 3" wide and full length of handrails and bolt or screw them to the handrails with countersunk heads and then glue and screw the boards inside the coachroof. Because of the much bigger surface area of the backing board and multiple screws it will be strong enough.
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atomvoyager
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Re: Attaching teak handrail to cabin ceiling with liner

Post by atomvoyager »

You asked about tapping epoxy. Although it might work somewhat for fiberglass I don't think it works well to tap thickened epoxy because it is too brittle. Maybe there is a way to grease the bolt and inject liquid epoxy around the threads so that it can be removed. I don't see that working for your application though.
Mrabe
Bottom Sanding Grunt
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Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:36 pm
Boat Name: Seaquin
Boat Type: Pearson Triton

Re: Attaching teak handrail to cabin ceiling with liner

Post by Mrabe »

Thanks for the replies. Great forum and thank you James. Your website is a wonderful resource to all of us restoring old boats. Will let you all know how it goes when I get to work on this later this month.[
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Seaquin
Anacortes, WA
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