terry wrote:
Our 1970s Westerly Tiger has stainless steel safety rails/wires on
stanchions around the boat. At the attachment to the stern pulpit
each steel wire is fastened by a now dodgy looking (probably rotting) rope
tie. Wondering what is the reason for these ... To avoid having a metal
'loop' around the boat that 'might' affect
radio direction finding, if used, on the now old fashioned lower
frequencies, such as coastal beacons in the 'Long Wave' band or
broadcasting stations in the 'Medium Wave' or 'Broadcast; band.

The RDF explanation is the only one I've heard that appears even slightly
plausible. Of course the RDF/ADF scheme is by now of little interest to US
sailors and perhaps only marginally interesting to Europeans. There was for
a time talk about being able to cut the lifelines to bring an overboard crew
back on the boat. Cutting through lifeline bottle screws could take more
time.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare