"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...
"terry" wrote in message
ups.com...
Dennis Pogson wrote:
wrote:
I have been looking before to replace my life lines. In Canada, I
found at Canadian Tires, 9 strands Stainless wire labelled aircraft
quality. On the same rack was the same wire with vinyl covering
marked $1.49 per foot.
I was ready to buy but I did not have the tools for splicing the
(Pelican) end connectors that hooks on the bow and stern pulpits.
I have seen some sailors using SS U-bolts to secure the connections
to the pulpits and stanchions. Not nautically elegant but safe.
The practise in UK is to secure the SS lifelines with a SS shackle at
the
pulpit and a cord lashing at the cockpit end. The cockpit end of the
wire
terminates about 3 inches short of the stern pulpit with a SS eyebolt
and is
lashed with as many turns of polyester (Dacron) cord as appropriate,
bearing
in mind that it may be necessary to cut the lifelines with one stroke of
a
sharp knife - usually about 6-8 turns is deemed satisfactory.
Dennis.
Question: I had previously thought that fastening one end of the
lifelines with some kind of non metallic rope LASHING (as is done with
all four lines, two each side of our 30+ year old Westerly Tiger) is to
avoid having a metallic 'shorted turn' around the boat that could
interfere with radio reception/direction finding etc. However the above
suggests it is for quick safe disconnection in an emergency? Or both?
Terry
I'm wondering what sort of emergency other than a capsize (turtle) would
necessitate cutting free lifelines.
One reason to release the lifeline might be to facilitate the rescue of a
MOB. It is tough enough to hoist someone over the rail, let alone trying to
get them over/through the lifelines. As for the "shorted turn" concept,
that can't be right (at least for any of the antennas that I've ever used on
my boat). I've not tried direction-finding gear, but even the antenna used
there has windings that are at right angles to the lifeline loop, so there
shouldn't be any significant interaction. If I am wrong about this, I hope
someone lets us know.
I had to replace the coated lifelines with uncoated stainless before I could
enter my sailboat in the Pacific Cup (a race from San Francisco to Hawaii).
The rules that apply mandate wire lifelines, and don't allow rope. I
believe that this is because the rules folks are worried about someone
accidentally cutting a rope lifeline. Before I got the new lifelines I
sliced off the PVC covering on the old ones, hoping I could use the now bare
wire. The exposed wire was rusty, and had meathooks. Perhaps I created the
meathooks with my knife, but if so it sure didn't take much effort. I
recall that some of the covered stainless lines are #305 stainless, rather
than #316, which might explain the corrosion I saw. In any case, once I saw
my bare lifelines, I was quite happy to replace them with new #316 uncoated
wire.
-Paul