[Rhodes22-list] Rhodes Rails

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Hi Tom,

In 1987, I fabricated a set of SS railings.  At the time, I was living in Russellville, AR.  There were 2 nuclear power plants in town.  These 2 nuke plants always seemed to be in the middle of some construction project or another.  The result of all this construction was a tremendous amount of 316L SS pipe and bar stock available at the local scrap yard at very attractive prices.  My railings are made from 3/4”, schedule 40 pipe and the stanchion mounts were milled from solid 316L SS bar stock.  The backing plates are ¼” thick 316L SS bar stock, drilled and tapped for ¼-20UNC threads, 4 per backing plate.  I had access to a powerful hydraulic pipe bender and a MIG welder.  The picture shows the finished project:

[cid:image002.png at 01DA4B1D.6771D8A0]
Note the little black plastic triangular wedges under each of the stanchions.  These are made of black UHMWPE and screwed into the rub rail.  The purpose of these plastic wedges is to prevent lines from getting caught under the stanchion mounts during a tack of a gibe.  Perhaps the most labor intensive operation of the project was finishing the railings.  Schedule 40 pipe has a 2B mill finish, which is a dull gray.  I ended up being satisfied with a satin bright finish that was produced with a wire brush on a drill.  Polishing all this pipe to a mirror finish would have required 4-5X more labor hours.

I recommend you NOT use the stanchions from the catalog.  As the picture shows, the stanchion extends over the top of the bump in the side rail.  Unless you fill it in somehow, mounting this stanchion as illustrated in the picture will leave an uncleanable dead space between the back of the stanchion mount and the toe rail.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
1978  Sanford, MI

Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows

From: Chris Geankoplis<mailto:chrisgeankoplis at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2024 5:25 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>; Tom Hyatt<mailto:thyatt at mica.edu>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Rhodes Rails

My son and I installed 6-8 of these fittings on our boat to create
lifelines and netting and to extend the tubular railing to provide more
safety around the cockpit. The brackets I picked up at Stan’s. It might be
hard to get though you might ask Charlie. Worst case you could have a local
welder who works with 316 stainless to make you up a 1/2 dozen or so.
Mounting them on the outside kept the decks open. Of course, they each had
robust backing plates. The project worked out fine. The photo will be at
the bottom I hope.

Chris G
Kansas Xenos
(But on board Enosis II in, warm for now, Florida)

On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 7:07 PM Tom Hyatt via Rhodes22-list <
rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org> wrote:

> Happy New Year to all.
>
> I'm looking for a set of rails (described on the Rhode parts website as
> "Life Rails'') for my R22.. Does anyone have any information on where I
> might be able to find them? Alternatively, it might be just as good to find
> stanchions that would fit on the raised ridges at the gunwales of the
> Rhodes. From those I could add my own lines or horizontal rails. I know I
> can find deck-mounted stanchions but I'm not interested in giving up the
> deck space for walking from the cockpit forward. .
>
> Has anyone DIY'd side rails or lines? Any tips or suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you might provide.
>
> Tom Hyatt
> S/V Eliza Jane, 1978
> Baltimore, MD.
>
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