No Randy, I would call that common sense. It seems sailors, as a rule, tend to be a little OCD, and some of us even worse than that, ie: two steps ahead of having the net thrown over us entirely. Despite my almost daily admonition to my customers to 'Just keep in simple, you ain't gonna wanna fool with that out there', I turn around and create some wiring thingy so complex I start losing sight of its function myself. I try not to regard it as the time vampire all these i-toys or whatnot seem to addict a lot of folks, and proclaim, "But I am fixing it RIGHT!", but even then after some projects I look back on it and think, "Was all that REALLY necessary?" Occasionally. Sometimes though I decide that I should have just left the damn bolt out and got on with my life. It's not a million dollar Oyster, and I'm not launching it to the moon.
I personally regard handrails as simply decoration anyway, and as flimsy as mine are, it seems even worse as it is the illusion of security. My lovely bride is adamant about the silly things though, and has remarked, "But I might slip overboard and get eaten by sharks". No dear. Our sharks don't like Italians . Or the usual that I tell everybody, "It's no difference than a gator. Just poke it with a stick or something, it'll go away." And as big as she is, it would take a mad feeding frenzy to do much harm anyway. And he would probably enjoy the broken piece of handrail instead..
So in retrospect, I think I'm just going to use this rusty nail I found, and then bend it over on the bottom side for added strength. Maybe make a hook out of the bent side and call it custom. I could hang bags of shark chum from it, see if I can't increase their appetite. And it's also why I don't need a plotter, I just follow the trail of broken boat parts floating behind me, along with the empty bottles of MD 20/20, and shell casings. The oil slick helps too.
Alright, sorry folks. I got chased off the boat a week ago, poor weather and pneumonia. Is it evident the lack of oxygen in my system? Bored to DEATH! I think I need another boat.
(Oh yeah, I've gotta tell this one. A few weeks back I bought a little dink or something, whatever. So I go into her office and during the casual encounter mentioned just as calm as I could, "Oh yeah, I bought another boat". When she leaned across her desk, the look on her face was utterly priceless when she almost screamed, "Are you INSANE?" !!!
Well, duuuuhh..