Is: Stream of consciousness Was: A curved guard of some sort
All, Now that the function of the curved bar has been identified, and tagging onto Sean's guess, I'd like to share an installation decision I made for my cabin heater. We have an old propane Force 10, 5,000 BTU bulkhead heater aboard the Dawn Treader on the port, forward cabin bulkhead. For those not familiar with this model, it takes a small 1" diameter stack and in my case, I chose to use 3/4" copper pipe instead of the recommended stainless tubing. Regardless of the material, that stack can get hot, and therein lies the answer to my initial concern as to how to guard against grabbing for it to maintain balance. It turns out that good old Mother Nature solved the problem for me. When passing by that heater when fired up, subconsciously there is no question that the stack is hotter than a $2 pistol. Apparently some primordial instinct buried way down at the base of our brain stem appears to tell us to avoid an intense heat like that. We have never even been tempted to reach for that hot pipe under any circumstance but just to be safe I fitted a 24"(?) teak hand rail vertically, just inboard of the stack. That gets used all the time. Happy Holidays to all, Glyn & Marilyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey CA