[Public-List] Question about toe rail on old model of Alberg 30

[FINNUS505 at aol.com]

Hello my Alberg 30 friends :)
 
Has anyone replaced the forward section of toe rail on an old model of  
Alberg 30?
 
Stargazer, a 1967 A30, got hit while she was on her mooring during  Irene, 
and the forward section of the port toe rail was broken in several places  
along about 8 feet of the forward section. The entire forward section up to  
the first scarf has to be replaced.
 
Her toerail was always 'marginal' :) and could have stood replacement  
earlier, but it was a job I dreaded and put off as long as I could. Now I have  
no choice, at least for this forward section.
 
Does the teak have to be steamed to make the bend without breaking at the  
fastening holes? Are there other techniques, procedures.......tricks, to  
bend the piece into shape?
 
Are there different grades of teak that I have to ask for when I'm calling  
around looking for the wood?
 
Trying to measure the exact replacement thickness of 44 year old teak that  
has been left bare and has shrunk with time is not as easy as I thought it 
would  be. If anyone has replaced this piece, do you remember what 
dimensions of height  and thickness you used to get the wood? 
 
Stargazer got pretty banged up. Besides the broken toe rail, her bow pulpit 
 was bent, port stantions bent, her SS rubrail was peeled back from bow to  
chainplates and bent like a corkscrew, and the topsides were scratched and  
gouged through the gelcoat. The force of the impact broke the port v  berth 
shelf away from the hull, though it looks like the hull just flexed, and  
didn't fracture.
 
The aft end of the masthead windex broke off!!
 
The impact broke Stargazer's mushroom out, and she started dragging. After  
about 600 feet, fortunately it caught on something BIG, and she stopped. 
Where  she hung up, at the extremes of her swings her stern was about 7 feet 
from  the topsides of a huge wooden sportfisherman that was in a slip. If she 
hadn't  caught onto whatever it was on the bottom, the damage would have 
been much,  much, worse.
 
But...............'you should have seen the other guy..'  I don't know  who 
it was that initially hit Stargazer, but he left chunks of plastic rubrail  
and a couple of small pieces of full thickness fiberglass laminate on  
Stargazer's deck. One was actually jammed into the hull to deck seam where the  
ss rubrail was peeled back!
 
All in all, we got off lucky. Other boats lost their rigs, went up on the  
rocks, or sank.
 
As always, any and all advice greatly appreciated.
 
Also, is a match for the ss rubrail available anywhere anymore?
 
Lee
Stargazer #255