Tamar Railings? Hmmm...
The fat railings are a very obvious feature of the boat, so we have to include some. You would normally think of brass, white metal or plastic rod. But metal would be rather heavy, and plastic rod isn't cheap, or easily available. And these materials aren't easy to join, either..
I thought of soldered thick copper wire - scraps of this are easy to find - but again there would be a weight problem...and then I realised that the insulation sleeve made a fine railing on its own. If you take the embedded wire out all the kinks disappear, and you just need to slip a thin bit of wire inside it in a few places to hold it in a bend. It's easy to superglue and it even comes pre-coloured....
I got my wire from a length of old house mains electric wire, and a dead computer power unit. Old washing machines or cars will also furnish oodles of the stuff. Look for black or white insulated wires which are between .05" wide to .1" wide, and some copper wire with strands about .025" wide.
Just download the
railings plans, then follow these instructions...
Hold the wire with pliers and pull the insulation off between finger and thumb. You should be able to take off a length about 14" long before it becomes too difficult...
Try the rail shape on for size. Little pinholes through the deck let you attach the rail on - it will be cyanoed later after painting the hull...
Where you want to join two pieces of insulation, cut one end in a V like this. That gives you a shaped end which mates smoothly to another wire at right angles. A dab of cyano will then hold it tightly in place...
Some wire has writing printed all down the side - but a quick scrub with oven cleaner soon clears this off...
The railings are all made by bending the top rail to shape, and then sticking posts onto it.
The insulation sleve will be floppy, but a thin straight length of copper wire threaded down it makes it quite straight. It can then be bent quite precisely to shape with fingers...
When you have got the rail right, start to attach the posts. Here you can see some thicker insulation being added to provide the very wide rear stern rails of the Tamar...
A pulpit is done in black plastic, and the little cross rails are added at the rear...
Here are the lengths of black insulation cut to size and ready to make the side rails and radar bridge...
