Thinking about taking bow rails off to slick up top deck. Do you think that would hurt anything as far as strength?

No, but you make sure you have a buddy holding them in place while you are taking the screws out. They will want to unfold and scratch the shiyt out of your top deck.

When i removed mine to have the boat painted there were indentations on the deck from them being bolted down.

My buddy took his off & after he had repainted it cracked. It does really clean it up though.

Thanks guys, trying to decide

i would admit it looks cleaner but it sure does provide an aread to tie off hold onto etc, specially with a boat that is 38ft. I dont know about you but on mine 29 it seems the cleets were poorly placed as it was. If I were to take the bow rail off Id probably at least put 1-2 pop cleats on each side.

I seen a 42Ex this summer that was minus the rails & it looked real good, I meant to ask the owner if he ordered it that way or removed them, but he was gone by the time we finished lunch @ Brownies, Anyways it got me thinking about it to, I wish I would have done it when my boat was @ Mitcher T's I would just add a few pin cleats to fill in the rail holes,

it seems with fountain that they sort of or have missed on comfort things in the past. Love my boat, but I guess thats what you get when you buy a race boat fitted for pleasure vs a pleasure boat fitted for performance like other brands take.

I was thinking the same thing as far as putting some pin cleats on. Maybe 2 on each side. I am taking it for some touch up in a couple of weeks, will let you know what painter says.