Having to devote all of Saturday to removing two mature southern yellow pine trees - the last of five that stood over the pole barn as static catastrophes - I gave Sunday afternoon to ripping the 11'-long mahogany board, pulling out five toe rail sections and five rub rail sections.

The toe rails off the Cape Dory Typhoon are roughly an inch and an eighth in height, and 3/4" in width; they run about 18.5' in length from bow stem to taffrail. To start, a scarf joint will be necessary given the length required and the stock I had on hand. With the length of stock that I had, I figured I could scarf two lengths together and sufficiently cover the run of the rail - both for the toe and rub rails. The width of the stock, given the kerf of my table saw blade, would also be sufficient to pull the toe rails and rub rails from it...with an extra board length for each of the rails.

I set the jointed side of the mahogany board against the fence of the table saw and trimmed roughly an eighth off the opposite edge, which ran a bit irregular in terms of width as I spot-checked various locations along the length of the board. I was ready to begin pulling, or ripping, lengths of toe rail blanks from the mahogany board. I set my rip width to the width of the board, less an inch and quarter (an eighth of that was for the saw kerf). I decided to rip the large mahogany board with the mass of the board between the fence and the saw blade - being safer (see "kickback", though I have installed a riving knife). I carefully ripped five lengths of toe rail from the large mahogany board and set them to the side.

I then moved on to Biscuit's rub rails. The Cape Dory rub rails measure 3/4" by 3/4", and run out a bit longer than the toe rails since they terminate at the stern of the Typhoon. Being that the mahogany board that I was to rip the lengths of rail from was 1" in thickness, I decided to plane the remaining board to 3/4" in thickness. I rolled the DeWalt planer into position (to spew shavings outside of the shop) and proceeded to make several passes until I achieved the desired thickness. With the remaining mahogany stock at 3/4" thickness, I repeated my efforts on the rub rails as I did with the toe rails, setting my rip width to 7/8" - allowing 1/8" for the kerf width.

In the end, I had five toe rail blanks and five rub rail blanks - enough for scarfing and then some. While I was planing the mahogany board for the rub rail lengths, I ran the lengths of toe rail through the planer to also achieve the desired 3/4" thickness at base. Before closing the shop I moved the mast onto saw horses next to Biscuit in preparation for disassembly, painting, and reassembly.

Total Hrs: 3