At this time I am allowing no visitors on the boat until the guard rail and life lines are installed. Thanks to Fred Merrifield who had a lot of aluminium left over from a product he patented and sold years ago. Anyone remember Snow Shoe kits ? If you do... Fred was the guy. Here is a link to his patent.. Fred's Snow Shoe Kits
This is a picture of the proto typing I did last fall while Gnettie was in the hospital. Fred had lots of aluminium so we cut a rod at about 4 feet long and I took it to the boat to see how it can all come together.	Here is another view from the deck. Looks way to high, but we need to start some where.
Here is the prototype of the mounting blocks.	Fred Merrifield had a whole bunch of aircraft aluminum tubes available, so we cut them to size. Here is the idea for the mounts. Each on had to be precisely drilled in order for them to be vertical and not hit on the rub rail. Also they are double tubed, 3/4" tubing on the outside and a 5/8" tube on the inside for extra strength.
So 26 to complete. Here they are ready for the router,	All done, ready to install. Each set of tubes are epoxied into the wooden blocks with an air hole drilled into the bottom.
Temporarily Installed on the ship, with rope as temporary life lines.	On deck view. Looks a lot safer now. When Gnettie got here we measured out and cut them all a little shorter. They are about waist height for her.
Now to serve them up. This process is called worming, parceling and serving. Worming is when you put a twine on galvanized wire, then it gets parceled as we are doing here to the rod. This is gaffer's tape because you can no longer purchase cloth electrical tape.	This process is called serving. We wrap tarred marine twine #18 all down the rod. Notice the caps I built to seal the tops. Once the twine is on it gets 3 coats of a sauce made from 6 parts Pine Tar, 3 parts linseed oil, 1 part spar varnish and 1 part Japan Driers.
Here is one completed.	Ready to install on the ship. This will give the ship the old fashioned 100 year old traditional look..
Here is an example of what service looks like on an old ship..	Mounted with 3M 5200 Adhesive caulking, they'll never come loose and provide extra strength should they get hit hard... At this point we decided to plug the air holes because of possible bug infestation. We've had insects crawling through tiny holes in the side of the ship and building a huge nest inside.
Her new look !	After temporary lines installed.