Commander #38

[ebb]

Certainly can agree that the long maybe TOO traditional handrails have an asethetic issue.

First to mind comes painting the rails same color as the cabin.
BUT that style of rail cries out, VARNISH ME - and might look odd if painted.

That rail is a busy design and maybe just too much for that sleek unencumbered look
where the Commander looks most trim & spiffy.


Didn't Alberg design a flat rail on pedestal feet for Cape Dory's?

Such a rail could be painted out and dissappeared on the curve of the cabin.
It could be designed just tall enough not to catch a curled finger when grabbed.
Imco the rail is an important safety feature that has to be there in some form.

Better yet, rails curved for grabbing, could be designed that have no peek-a-boo openings.
They could dissappear all together because they are featureless.
And better for bare feet bearing agaunst them when working on the roof.
'T' rails with no scuppers, like the Cape Dory's, would be easy to make and also easy on the toes.
(Lake Commanders with the new sheer bowsprit would imco look especially trim & stretched with "disappeared rails.")

As with awkward additions to A.'s sweet lines, for instance a dodger...if you darken the dodger color
it will tend to be less of a feature. Painting 'flat' rails darker, perhaps gray on the white top, may de-emphasize them even further
as the eye will more likely catch Alberg's pure curve of the cabin.

Rails make the cabin top a safer place to sit and stand, so I wouldn't disappear them altogether.