I have a sailfish hull that I am working on restoring. Both of the teak handrails have been ripped off and will need to be replaced, but I was thinking about modifying the boat a little bit since this is the perfect time for it.

I have sailed a variety of other boats, all pretty small but bigger than the sailfish, and most of them have hiking straps for heavy wind. I have never sailed a sailfish before (I can't until I fix it) but when I look at the design of it I see that hiking is definately not in the design. The spaces underneath the handrails aren't big enough to fit one's toes under, and besides, it would be awful painful to rest one's behind on the other rail and lean out.

So what I am thinking about doing is making new handrails that are pretty small, so they don't get in the way, and putting hiking straps just inside of the abbreviated handrails.

Has anyone ever done this before to a sailfish? What was your design for them and how did you attach the hiking straps firmly to the deck?

Thanks,
-Phil Brault