handrail for Ballad

[Benoit]

Hello all,
Both wooden handrail on the deck of my Ballad are pretty old and not in very good condition. I am searching some new ones but it seems impossible to find (with this lenght and with 5 loops as the original one). I only found some with 5 loop but shorters or with the good lenght but with 8 loops.
Does anyone know where I can buy those parts?

Many thanks

[ballad378]

A few years ago I went to a carpenter and asked him to make a wooden copy in teak of the original.
If was not cheap but it fits on deck and is was not necessary to drill new holes.
good luck. Jim

[Benoit]

Many thanks Jim.
I think that you solution is the best at the end.
I have also seen that plasteak is able to perform customized handrails in synthetic teak which seems to be like teak (at least on the photos of their website).

[prjacobs]

Somewhere in the photos section of the old Ballad Exchange I saw a picture of a Ballad with stainless cabin top rails. I made a copy of the photo, and post it below, asking if the owner of this boat can shed some light on the origin of these fine handrails. They seem like a good alternative to wood ones, certainly stronger and one less thing to varnish!

[Jesper Milling]

I also had new handrails made, by a local boatbuilder. I even had to buy new stainless screws from him because the local boatsupply didn't have any long enough.

[patentnick]

One of the original handrails snapped under use so I've replaced mine with 30mm stainless steel tubing and chrome bronze bases. They're a lot more solid and I've through-bolted them to the wooden handrails in the cabin (the original bronze screws can fail). This photo is far from ideal but I don't have access to my boat's photo files right now. When I do, I'll post a fw more.

P1000026.JPG (2.84 MiB) Viewed 29225 times

[Benoit]

many thanks, I have to think about those ideas. Wood is more beautifull but steel seems to be a good compromise (it will be cheapest and more solid).