How strong is a toerail?

[chriscorr]

I have a toerail the length of the boat, about 1/2" high with holes all the way along. I'm looking for a "centre cleat" solution for short handed mooring and like many others can't bring myself to pay about £70x2. I've seen 3 suggestions:

1. Rig a loop around the shrouds
2. Lead a rope out through one of the toerail holes
3. Put a block on the rail (like the spinnaker blocks) and pass a rope through that.

I like option 3 but is the rail strong enough (to take a single line holding the 24' boat alongside for a few minutes)?? A few Beneteau owners on here say that Beneteau void the warranty if this sort of arrangement is set up as rails aren't meant to take this load. My boat is a Foxhound24 built in 1979...

Thanks... Chris

 

[Tranona]

If the toe rail is part of the hull/deck joint it is almost certainly strong enogh for cleats. You can buy cleats that use the slots in the toe rail. Alternatives are cleats from Barton that fit on genoa tracks - good because you can vary location, or you can bite the bullet and bolt through the deck with a good backing plate.

 

[dt4134]

If the toe rail is strong enough to take a spinnaker block it should be strong enough to take short-term loads for mooring, especially if you using normal mooring warps that will stretch to absorb shock loads.

Maybe the loads from a long-term use with the boat rolling and straining the toe rail would be more of a risk, but even then my money would be on the block going first.

 

[rob2]

Everything I've seen of the Foxhound and its smaller siblings suggests it is somewhat more strongly built than a Bendytoy. If it has an aluminium toerail, then you can construct a cleat mount to attach to it. Your description sounds more like a wooden rail on standoffs. Is it possible that you could through bolt a fitting sat on the toerail? A cleat or a stand up block would be ideal.

Rob.

 

[William_H]

Centre cleat

The problem I see with a centre cleat is that one day you might find yourself coming in too fast but manage to get the springer onto the cleat. The cleat then and attachment may be left to stop several tonnes of boat.
The answer is to use ropes and cleat itself of similar or less strength than the toe rail. You could add more mounting screws to the Al toe rail into the deck or even add a back up piece of Al angle screwed to the deck on the inside of the toe rail and through bolted sideways to the toe rail.
It seems to me it should be possible to fabricate a base for a plastic horn cleat that clamps or bolts to the toe rail and back up. But for all that toe rails I would have thought are pretty strong being used for spin tweeker blocks and even reaching jib sheet points. good luck olewill

 

[Bosun Higgs]

A few Beneteau owners on here say that Beneteau void the warranty if this sort of arrangement is set up as rails aren't meant to take this load. My boat is a Foxhound24 built in 1979...

Don't worry - your boat is out of warranty anyway.

 

[Stemar]

Jissel, a Snapdragon 24, doesn't have a useful toerail, it's part of the deck moulding , and there's no real room for a through bolted mid cleat, so I use a stanchion base, which I'll be the first to admit isn't ideal but it works, on a boat which I suspect is quite a bit heavier than a Foxcub.

The line I use is pretty elastic, which does help. Were I really worried about shock loads, I'd add a rubber snubber.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Beneteau fitted centre cleats to the toe rails as standard until the late 90's anyway....

Personally, I think if you were going in hard enough for a line to risk the integrity of your toe rail, then i'd 1] suggest your lines were a tad heavy, and 2] suggest that a broken toe rail was the least of your problems..

I use them on 40' Beneteau of early 90's vintage, so a bit heavier than today's models, without any worries or concerns at all.

 

[fireball]

I got winched up the mast on our previous boat ... the coach roof winch wasn't powerful enough (nor self tailer) so I rigged a snap block to the pushpit and the line went to the main genoa winches ...

The instructor we had onboard thought the tang on the pushpit wasn't strong enough so re-attached the snapblock to the toe rail (unbeknown to me!) ... unfortunately it was at the end of the toe rail ... and the force pulled the toerail out of the deck ...

So - just make sure it's in the middle of a section and check how it is fastened underneath - you could always add a few spreading plates to beef up the fastening...