1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing Side Deck Handrails

Way back in August of 2013, I had the original mahogany handrails sanded and coated with Imron MS1 polyurethane clear. They turned out very nice and have been sitting under the boat in bubble wrap ever since. The handrails weren’t a pre-splash priority since the boat would float just fine without them. But it’s nice to have safety rails, and they’ll look great when they’re installed. Plus, it’ll be a lot easier installing them while I still have the catwalk scaffolding around the hull that makes up the lower structure of Tent Model XXX. The tent is coming down this weekend, so I got to work installing the handrails.

Bags o’ 5/16-18 oval head machine screws in 316 stainless

There are 18 chromed bronze stanchion bases, and they each need four 3″ long machine screws. The only screws I could find that met those specs in 316 marine-grade stainless have slotted heads. I’d prefer Phillips, but I could only find those in 18-series stainless.

They’re not shiny

The original stanchion base screws were once-shiny chromed bronze. So I cranked up the polisher and made the stainless shine.

Left is polished, right is OEM

Stainless shines like chrome!

After polishing all of the hardware, I went to the boat and started installing stanchions.

Taping off for caulk is tedious

I temporarily installed each stanchion base with a couple of screws, then taped off the mahogany toe rail and stanchion base. Then pulled the screws, applied caulk, reinstalled the screws, squeegeed off the caulk that squeezed out, pulled the tape, then cleaned up any caulk residue with mineral spirits. And I repeated that process for the 18 main stanchions, four cleats, and two bow rail bases.

Tef-Gel goes in every screw hole when installing hardware on the rails

Let the stanchion installation begin!

Several hours later…

These stanchions on both sides were challenging

The stanchions themselves installed easily enough. It was the diagonal braces and their mounts that caused trouble.

The mounting bases don’t lie flat on the toe rail

If I screw the mounting bases down as-is, there will only be solid contact on the edge…and that edge will cut through the clearcoat. While I pondered on how to solve that problem, the next day I installed the bow railing. Since the tent was in the way, I decided to cut off the top over the bow.

First sunlight on the deck in years!

The forward-most stanchions are the bent ones you can see above. With the tent in place, I couldn’t rotate them to thread them into the stanchion bases. That was as good an excuse as any to cut part of the tent top off. Even though it was still early, the tent immediately got cooler once that plastic cap was gone.

Rechromed bow piece fit perfectly and looks great!

Bow rail is installed

Rail hardware screws are installed with Tef-Gel

Handrail adapter is installed

Rope attached to the tent roof frame supports the handrail while I attach the forward end

Sikaflex 291 LOT mahogany caulk and stainless screws secure the handrail to the stanchions

Port forward handrail is done

Repeat the process on the starboard side

First light!

With the blanket off the bow deck, that’s the first time sunlight has come directly into the (nearly finished) V-berth through the refurbished hatch.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing Mahogany Handrails