Stern rail mod to make it easier to board from the ladder.

If anchoring or on a mooring, we use a dingy (usually a kayak) to board from the aft ladder. Climbing over the stern rail got to be old so I got out the saw and cut the rail and added to down supports and angle brackets. This makes climbing onto the boat from the back a lot easier.

The new added down posts came from a six foot length of 1 inch OD, .049 inch wall Stainless tube. The 90 degree adapters are available from a variety of sources and clamp to the SS tube with set screws.

When climbing up the ladder from a dingy or kayak, you can put a lot of force pulling back on the rail especially if you are boarding in swell. You may even pull back with your entire body weight. In order to handle all that force from a person holding onto the rail and pulling directly back, the new vertical post especially on the side closer to the center of the boat goes through a new hole drilled through the fiberglass (see the picture below) and the stainless post extends significantly inside the transom (inside) before it bolted to the transom.

The picture below illustrates how the new down SS tubes get their strength from say a person hanging off the rear rail while boarding. The tube on the right in the picture below is the one closer to center. To illistrate how the new vertical SS tube gets its stremght, the hole where the tube enters the Laz is called the fulcrum point. Some distance below this, the tube is bolted to the transom. When a force is applied to the post from someone boarding, the outward pull will try and rotate the tube around the fulcrum point.  Because the SS post is bolted to the transom at "B", the distance to the fulcrum point reduces the force at point "B" trying to rip the tube away from where its bolted. The SS tube will bend before the bolted spot or the entry hole (fulcrum point) fail. This mod is now in its second season with no problems at all.  FYI, the holes for the new SS tubes were first drilled with a smaller drib bit and then a round file used to shape the holes to the SS tubes. Some fiber glass and epoxy reinforcing was also done where the tubes enter the inside of the boat.

The pictures below show a snap in clip (for one inch OD tube) that keeps the ladder all the way up and secured but allows the ladder to be pulled down from someone in the water. This is a safety item especially in a marina as it can be very difficult to get back on the dock if someone goes in the water. A swimmer can come up behind the boat, pull the ladder out of the snap and rotate it down and get out of the water. It was just by luck that I put the new outside tube exactly lined up with the ladder tubing.