I pried off the the first couple of plies of the rails using a hammer, chisel and saw (I didn't try to take them off in one big chunk). After that, I began going after the remainder with the Lie-Nielsen scrub plane in the photo. The scrub plane takes nice chunky shavings and removes material quickly. It has a rounded blade that cuts deep into the wood. Once I have gone a bit farther, I'll switch to a finer plane or a power sander.
Why remove the rails? Partly because they are cracked in a few places and show signs of dry rot in others. But the bigger problem is that they've changed shape over time in a way that has adversely affected the geometry of the boat. In fact, after I finished attaching the hull to the cradle, I noticed the cradle itself was being pulled inward by a 1/4 of an inch or so and was tilting on its base. The boat was literally rocking the cradle. How amazing is that?
Once the rails were removed, the cradle settled back down flat. This shows what a crucial part of the structure of the boat they are and where an Interclub derives most of its strength. (Interclubbers also refer to the rails as the "decks" because it's where you sit most of the time when you are sailing.) Some builders of fiberglass Interclubs underestimated the importance of the rails and made them too weak. Consequently, many serious racers with fiberglass boats have commissioned boat shops to re-enforce or "box" them.
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