Looking to keep the momentum going, I grabbed a couple hours in the last afternoon to complete the toe and rub rails, readying them for installation. Coming into the shop this afternoon, the rails had been scarfed and glued up - two lengths each for the port and starboard toe and rub rails. I started out on the toe rails, having set up the router (with guide attached and dialed in) while I was last at the shop. I like to route a shallow recess (rabbit) in the underside of the toe rails to capture polysulfide caulking - helping to glue in the rail but also to seal out the sea.

With the rails supported on a pair of saw horses and out feed supports, I started at one end, flipped the switch on the router, engaged the guide and router bit and slowly made my way to the other end. The rabbit was perhaps a 32nd out from being dead-center, and happy with the result, I headed to the other rail to complete its rabbit.

After routing out the rabbits, I disassembled the guide and exchanged the bit for a 1/4" round over bit. The 1/4" round over, being applied to both sides of the toe rail would create a pleasing shape and dimension for the toe rails. I slowly worked my way from end to end on the port toe rail, and then doubled back for the opposite side of the rail. The end profile, shown below, provides the rough cut form. Some easing of the transitions through hand-sanding would further soften the curves of the rail profile. I repeated my efforts on the starboard toe rail. My final work on the toe rails for the evening would be to hand-sand the length of the rails with 80-grit paper, easing the recently routed edges.

I carefully moved the toe rails over to the bench for short-term storage and brought the rub rails into the work space. I sanded the scarf joints to remove the cured epoxy squeeze out, and then applied the same process for easing the edges but with an 1/8" round over on the smaller rub rails. With the four spaces with the router (2 passes for each rail), I finished the evening by hand-sanding and easing the routed edges. That would wrap up the work for the evening. Next for the rails will be laying out the fastener holes, and opening up the fastener holes with a forstner bit to provide a void to accept the screw head and a bung to cover....oh, and I have a lot of bungs to cut!

Total Hrs: 2.25