Stainless Steel grab rails

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

stainless steel tubing...when it's wet is quite slippery..it might look shippy, but wood (teak) would be a better option in my humble opinion...

You can get knurled SS grab rails. Wood looks nice but a bitch to maintain.
JMHO

[Polywaves]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

stainless steel tubing...when it's wet is quite slippery..it might look shippy, but wood (teak) would be a better option in my humble opinion...

Good point. I've seen stainless grab rails with a roughened area, maybe to avoid it getting slippery. At any rate, I like stainless grab rails and I'll make sure I select only the ones with this kind of feature.
Or, I'll make them out of wood.

[MicHughV]

My stainless steel steering wheel was quite slippery when wet, so I wrapped the perimeter with small diameter nylon line and placed some decorative turks head knots at each spoke. It has lasted for years and years, a bit dirty now from sweat and grime, but no sign of deterioration.....and I guarantee, no slippage.

You could do stainless handrail tubing the same way. It takes a lot of line to do a wrap and is quite labor intensive, but if you're sitting at an anchorage with nothing to do, grab a beer (or two or three) and get to work.

I have seen stainless steel tubing with a "roughened" surface, but not sure if its 316 marine grade and unlikely to be found at West Marine, though a machine shop could probably fabricate some for you.....

But a "wrap" kinda defeats the purpose of having stainless in the first place, as by the time you are done, little stainless will be visible.

[Cadence]

For the OP. Global Industrial makes up to 42" 1 1/4" dia. shot peened SS grab rails.

[Talk Story]

Try Hamilton Marine, these are pretty nice https://shop.hamiltonmarine.com/prod...ter-44356.html

[Bycrick]

Bilgewater has it. I got tired of having to varnish the two handrails. I found the replacements at the local hardware store, sold as rails to help old folks (which didn’t quite include me at the time) from falling down in the bathtub. I had to change the bolt pattern and they were about 1-1/4” diameter and matte finish as opposed to polished. If I remember, they were about $15. There still there. Get polished once a year.

[David B]

Originally Posted by Hillbillybuddha

I pulled the teak hand rails off my cabin top and would like to replace them with stainless steel but I'm having trouble finding options. Any leads?

Custom fabricated will always look better. As a guide, check out images of a Beneteau Oceanis 50 2008 (teak), and then a 2012 model (stainless). That may give you a guide as to what you are looking for.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

We had ours custom fabricated to match the bolt spacing of the pulled teak handrails to include studs welded to the handrail flange bases. These were fastened to the inside wood handrails as originally built.

Here’s a photo of the custom fabricated handrails. Ignore the in progress paint job.

[John Hornung]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I made my own for similar reasons.

1/2” schedule 80 316 I brought surplus for $4/pound.

I fabricated the rails in Canada and had them welded on in St Martin for $700.

The beauty of doing it yourself is you can get anything you want. I put those loops on the end so I can keep tie downs in place fore/aft.

No good photos of them. In the second photo we are in the middle of a refit and had just experienced a wicked hail storm. But you can see the rails.

Consider using Starboard material to make custom handrails.

[hpeer]

I son’t know about starboard. Maybe exclusively for handholds bit we use the rails for a lot more and need more strength.

But I don’t like a lot of handrails I see. Fussy that way I guess.

[J. Greg]

Contact The Railmakers Inc. in Costa Mesa (949) 642-6506

They have been in business over 40 years. Did a beautiful job replacing my Pulpit.

[billcrowley]

An alternative proposal: duplicate your original grab rails in composite material, like Trex. A PO did that on our Newport 30 an unknown number of years before we acquired her in 2016. They are strong, and require zero maintenance. From 5 or more feet away, the casual observer cannot tell they are not wood. This change was likely far less expensive than stainless (or teak) replacements.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Snore

Maybe I am overly cautious, but I would NEVER use a screw for something as critical as this. At the minimum; a bolt, to a large fender washer and nyloc nut on the inside.

FYI: A 'machine screw' IS a type of bolt threaded for a nut.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by billcrowley

An alternative proposal: duplicate your original grab rails in composite material, like Trex. A PO did that on our Newport 30 an unknown number of years before we acquired her in 2016. They are strong, and require zero maintenance. From 5 or more feet away, the casual observer cannot tell they are not wood. This change was likely far less expensive than stainless (or teak) replacements.

I don’t know about Trex from a strength perspective.

Now if you said G10 or equal, that would be cool.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

FYI: A 'machine screw' IS a type of bolt threaded for a nut.

True but a little picky. I think everyone got his point.