The small screw in the photo below is one of the #12, 1 3/4″ bronze wood screws used to fasten the cap rails. The larger screws are old and new screws used to fasten the genoa track to the rails. The larger screws are #16, 3″.

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As discussed previously, the rails are bent from the ends until the next screw location (possibly far from an end) is in position.

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Once a particular screw location is in place, I drilled the pilot hole using a tapered bit with a countersink.

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Next, I used another drill with a phillips bit to sink the screw, then a screwdriver for final tightening.

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Here the starboard and port rails are fastened. (Incidentally, I used Dolfinite as a bedding compound, but there will be more on that later.)

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There were 118 screws, so we cut 118+ bungs and set them in thickened epoxy. The next day, I chiseled off all but about 1/8″ of each bung then sanded off the rest.

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There is a gap in the rails at the bow, where chocks are inset. Forward of the chocks is more teak cap. I began these pieces by roughly tracing the old and cutting out of rough stock.

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Next, on the boat, I made a centerline on the stem.

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After plenty of planing, sanding, and routing, I was able to temporarily screw the pieces to the stem, as show below.

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Final fastening involved thickened epoxy and bungs, and masking tape. (In case you missed it, there was more routing between the above and blow pictures.)

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The next challenge was to shape the wood to accept the stem fitting and chocks.

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Little by little, I chiseled out material, as shown in the following three photos.

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After rough shaping, I made a sanding block out of wood, screws, hot glue, and a used sanding belt.

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Eventually I was able to get the stem fitting in place…

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…and confirm that the fasteners would find their holes.

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The recesses for the chocks presented a different challenge.

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In the photo below you can see that the rail has a slight recess to accept the “wings” (for lack of a better term).

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The challenge is that (1) my rails are 1/8 inch thicker and (2) I really don’t feel like cutting recesses. Thus, the bottom of the chocks will sit above the cutouts in the toe rail.

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I solved this problem by injecting thickened epoxy into the gap, creating a surface on which the bottom of the chocks will sit.

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I taped off the bottom of the chocks and some of the surrounding wood before injecting the epoxy.

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After the epoxy dried, I was able to remove the chocks by banging on them with a rubber mallet.

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After some gap-filling, the job was done.

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Here the chocks are in place only temporarily.

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Meanwhile, at the aft end of boat, work began on the wider, curved rail. This rail cannot be made by bending a straight piece, as the curve is too severe, and the rail too wide. I used the old rail as a template and cut the new rail as two pieces out of rough stock,

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I cut the shape roughly with the jig saw, then used the table sander to fine-tune the curves. Here are the two pieces planed to thickness.

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I had to match up these pieces with the starboard and port rails.

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Here is the original rail sitting in its original location.

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After quite a bit of careful cutting with the dovetail saw, I was able to make a dry fit.

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Final installation involved thickened epoxy.

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The following photos should, by now, be self explanatory.

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Eventually I will reinstall the stern chocks.

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