I just removed the handrails on my 1977 26 last week, and perhaps you have a similar setup. Under the teak plugs on the inside handrails is a square-drive wood screw, which goes through the cabin top to the outside rail. After removing these, the inside rails come off. On either side of the first screws is another screw accessed through a hole in the headliner, which marries the outside rail to the cabin top. Make sure you have the right size bit. Removing took less than an hour, and I am assuming that remounting will be equally simple. I have now resolved several leaks, and I wish I had undertaken this project sooner.

I want to do the same on the starboard side of my 30 mk1 but one of the access screws for the outside grab rail is located on top of the bulkhead where it mates with the deck/cabin liner mold. It appears the factory must have assembled the grab rails on to the deck before they lowered the deck on to the hull c/w bulkheads. I was wondering how one would get access to those screw blocked by the bulkhead?

On my '74 C&C 30 there were two screws on each side's grabrail that lined up with the forward bulkhead. However, there were small holes drilled in the headliner at an angle and I found the screws in there. In fact, as I recall, there was a screw on each side of the bulkhead, and one of the access holes was drilled through the head door's track.

Taking off the grab rails and working on them in the basement allowed me to do a really great repair and Cetol job, and I was able to seal the coring around all the holes to avoid future leaks.
Wally Kowal