BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

On 1 Mar 2004 19:22:27 -0800, (Parallax) wrote:

A few months ago, Practical Sailor had a letter concerning whether or
not lifelines should be loose or tight. The argument for loose ones
was something about the force on a tight lifeline would tend to
collapse the stanchion more than the force on a slack lifeline. I
cannot reproduce the argument with any vector diagram I can draw.
Does anybody else have any thoughts on this. Furthermore, there has
been discussion of all rope lifelines instead of wire, any thoughts?

The loose = better argument doesn't make much sense to me. If your
lifeline is free running through eyes at the tops of the stanchions, I
can't see it making much of a difference, other than getting a jerk
when the loose lifelines are pulled taut.

If the lifeline is fixed at the top of each stanchion, you would
definitely want it taut, as pulling on a loose line would mean the
stress is only distributed to the two stanchions immediately adjacent.

..... then again, I don't recall ever hearing of linelines that weren't
free-running along eyes on the stanchions.

Maybe I'm missing something.

-m