If your boat deck needs a new railing and you're going to have this item custom-made at a manufacturing facility, you might find these suggestions interesting.
Pick a manufacturer who provides zinc-nickel plating services
Regardless of whether you want the railing to be made from brass, cast iron, or another metal or metal alloy, you should ensure the manufacturer from whom you order the boat deck's railing provides zinc-nickel plating services. The reason for this is as follows; any railing that you position around a boat deck is going to get wet regularly. Depending on which material you choose and whether you sail in freshwater lakes or saltwater oceans, this material might corrode or rust. Once this happens, you will have to replace it because a corroded or rusting boat deck railing will not be safe to lean on.
However, if you have a zinc-nickel plating added to it, this plating will protect it and dramatically increase the time it takes for your railing to develop water-related deterioration. Although using this zinc-nickel plating service may make the manufacturing of the railing more expensive, it could increase this item's lifespan by several years and as such, would ensure that you do not have to pay for another new railing in, for example, a year's time.
Think carefully about how wide you want the openings between the railing's balusters to be
You will need to provide the manufacturer with a number of measurements, including the dimensions of the gaps between the railing's balusters. It's important to give this matter a lot of thought. For example, if you have children and take them on boating trips a lot, then you should probably request very narrow gaps between the balusters, to ensure your children don't fall or try to jump through them. This may result in you ordering a larger number of balusters overall, which could make the railing more expensive, but much like using the zinc-nickel plating service, it is worth the extra cost. Knowing that your kids are safe on the deck will make your boating trips with them much more enjoyable.
Conversely, if you don't have children, and the friends you take out on trips enjoy diving off the boat to go swimming, then you might want to create wide gaps between the balusters so that they can slip through these and jump off the boat from any area of the deck, whenever they feel like diving into the water.
For more information on zinc-nickel plating and the gaps between balusters, reach out to a railing manufacturing company.