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?

Tie 2 oz fishing weight in the middle of a 24" piece of string and try
to pull it straight between your hands. You can't do it. As the string
gets straighter the force required goes up as the cotangent of the
angle. At 5º the tension in the line is about 14 times the side force.
At 2º it is more than 28 times. In a straight line the tension would
be infinite. It is not a pure relationship however because even with a
very tight wire the angle increases as the line stretches.

I am not saying that the lifelines need to be slack but they also should
not be guitar string tight.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
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