Triton Toerail

[Triton106]

Hi Tim, Britton,

I think you guys did a great job on Triton680's toerails. I have been thinking about adding wooden toerails on top of the mold-in toerails of my westcoast Triton106. The westcoast Tritons' mold-in toerails are about 1.5 inches high and have a flat top section about 1 inch wide so it will not be difficult to add a wooden toerail on top. The thing I am unsure about is how that will change the profile (look) of the Tritons.

I recall Tim commented in another thread on the height of the toerails where you expressed concerns that toerails that are too high may be detrimental to a Triton's profile. While esthetics are by nature personal and subjective I was wondering how you arrived at the height of the toerails you added to Triton680 and what that height is (seems to be about 2.5 inches from the pictures).

Another question that I have is if you have any concerns that over time the screw holes under the toerails may be sources of leaks and what you did to mitigate that.

Thanks in advance for your help. Great job on the hull and deck paint and new windows.

Best regards,

[bcooke]

I arrived at the height (and the whole design) simply by copying Nathan's toerails :-)

http://www.dasein668.com/projects/exterior/wood

The day I first saw Nathan's boat I vowed to copy his toerail design. The increased sense of security, real safety bonus, and overall good looks made it a no brainer for me.

Doing the same thing on an Aeromarine Triton might be tricky. A 'box' type design like on Glissando might work better. At some point, high toerails start looking like bulwarks which really isn't such a good look on a Triton.

2" was the actual height I think. I varied from Nathan's design by making the base a bit wider than his (to blend into the 'breasthook'-stem-wood-trim-whatchamacallit) and increasing the outer surface angle to reach a width of 0.75" at the top.


As for the screw holes leaking...



... we used 8 tubes of Lifecaulk.

[Tim]

I have been thinking about adding wooden toerails on top of the mold-in toerails of my westcoast Triton106. The westcoast Tritons' mold-in toerails are about 1.5 inches high and have a flat top section about 1 inch wide so it will not be difficult to add a wooden toerail on top.

If you kept the height of the new wooden rail proportional to the boat, and took the existing height of the molded rail into account, you could add some wood here. With 1.5" of height already in place, you're fairly limited to how high you could go without it looking odd, I think.

My bigger concern, aesthetically, is what you'd then do with the exposed portion beneath the new toerail, at least on the outside. If I recall correctly, you recently installed an external rubrail over the hull-deck joint, which naturally must be at the bottom edge of the raised molded toerails you have. Wouldn't you then have a fiberglass space (white, I presume) between the rubrail and the toerail? I think this might look awkward and unplanned: too narrow to be intentional, too wide to escape notice.

It might be better in your case if you considered adding a caprail, rather than a toerail--a shorter piece of wood (3/4", probably), set on top of that molded flat and overhanging slightly, perhaps with bullnosed edges. This would fit in better with the molded piece and the overall look of the boat, maybe, than something taller.

Or perhaps you could build a new toerail that incorporated an outer edge that extended over the molded portion and met up with the rubrail. But this probably would have been better done before the rubrail, so the rubrail could butt into the toerail, rather than the other way around.

That said, I don't know enough intimate detail about the West Coast boats' toerail/rubrail design, having never seen one in person--photos only. So I may be off base here. And yes, aesthetics are complicated and subjective, so you may have other ideas.

If all you're going for is security, and don't care so much about the looks, then your options are wide and varied as to how to proceed. In my opinion, though, form doesn't follow function: form is function.

I've seen an East Coast boat with tall wooden toerails on top of the East Coast molded rails (which have a rounded top profile). I thought they looked horrendous, not to put too fine a point on it; they just didn't fit. The intentions were good enough, and the rails' execution was fine, but these tall rails (probably 2-3") were just perched up there on top of this ugly fiberglass thing, and they clearly looked like an addition, not a part of the boat.

I was wondering how you arrived at the height of the toerails you added to Triton680

I should add that we really determined the height by making a couple mockups and checking them on the boat to see how they looked in place, and proportionately with the lines of the boat. That said, we knew the basic proportions and concept we were going for, but didn't have Nathan's boat on hand for actual measuring.

[Triton106]

Tim, Britton,

Thank you very much for sharing your insights and experience. Tim brought up a really good question I did not think about (what else is new?) Namely, I already installed mahogany rub rails on my westcoast Triton106 and the white space that will be created between the rubrail and wooden toerail on top of the original mold-in toerail (white) will look very odd. In addition, if 2 inches is the max height of the toerail on Tritons without ruining the asthetics then I will only be able to add 1/2 inch or so.

Like all other projects I have done the toerail idea orginated from function (adding security). But I 100% agree with Tim form must be taken into consideration and weighted equally. Tim's caprail idea seems to be the way to go. If I am not mistaken Joe Henson also added caprail to Triton114 (see below). It seems to add both security and asthetically pleasing, although I still have to resolve the white space between the rubrail and caprail. Maybe it will not be an issue with caprail. I have to make a mock up to see how it will look. In the meantime I would appreciate any other ideas.



I also agree bulwark is not the right look for Triton. They look great on Westsail, Cape George, and other heavy cruisers. There is a boat (a 35' CCA design) in our marina that added bulwark with bronze brackets on top of the toe rail with an inch space between them. I think the workmanship is top notch but the look is just not right.

Best regards,