Digger,

Are you planning on car-topping it? With my boats that's the only reason I've found to put anything on the rails - to protect the rails from the racks and the vehicle from the rails. For that I like soft padding best.

Laszlo 

   Good question, Lazlo. The pram is meant to be multipurpose and we're building to both row and Sail. It will likely be car-topped some. The abuse I can see the rails taking the most will be when used as a tender where it will be knocking up against the side of our catboat while getting on and off. In that case maybe the padding would be best at protecting both boats. For docking it would be nice to not to have to think about toting and working with Fenders.

As far as the brass goes, I like the idea of flat brass, say 1/8 x 5/8, but wonder how difficult it would be to bend it to the compound curve of the rails.

With the padding, I'm wondering how it would work to install it with snaps or turn-buttons rather than with screws.

digger

I've used the half oval brass that CCL sells to protect the bottom of my skeg and based on working with that it should be no problem bending it to match the rails. On the other hand, other boaters, especially those with gelcoat, would probably see them as anti-social, especially if the screw heads weren't perfectly countersunk.

Laszlo

 Digveer said....  " .....It will likely be car-topped some. The abuse I can see the rails taking the most will be when used as a tender where it will be knocking up against the side of our catboat while getting on and off......"

.

Most of us car top something. If the boat finish is tender the rails on the car top are likley padded.  Becides all that, if you built it you can fix it. 

. 

A tender knocking up against the side of one of my boats should be against a couple of fenders. Or a larger fender  laid horizontal . 

   So Grumpy, do you think the padded gunnels don't offer enough protection to gelcoat? (I'm asking that as a question, not as a challenge to you)

Yeah, you're right if I can build it I can fix it. On the other hand I'd rather build it so I don't have to fix it. :)

And as an aside. I have some memory of reading somewhere on the forum here that you have/had a Menger 19. Am I remembering right?  We bought a Menger 19 last June, our first boat that isn't a canoe.

digger   

   " Menger 19"...... ??? don't know what that is. Never had one. 

Line the rail of the tender with bumper material like I'm about to put on the kayak dock. It will look like a tender/working boat and keep the cat boat clean. 

 Ahh, I did a search -- it was Gramps who has/had the Menger 19. I never was good with names. In my mind Gramps,  Grumpy -- they all start remembering the same. The Menger 19 is a catboat.

Yes, we're talking about the same padding -- looks like a stuffed firehose laid along the gunwales/rails. Originally, maybe they did use firehose?

Have you used the stuff in the past?  What do you think about attaching with snaps or turn-buttons so it can be taken off? Having them permanently mounted on an Eastport Nesting Pram would likely seriously impact the nestability. Though at this point I'm not sure how often we would take it apart to nest.

digger