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:
Possible alternatives?
a) Easy to cut and release with a knife in an emergency?
b) 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.

Obvously of no concern for GPS!

Could one use a metal turnbuckle and/or quick to disconnect pelican
hook instead?

All suggestions and/or experiences welcomed. Thanks.

On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 14:01:55 -0700 (PDT), terry
wrote:

b) 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.

That was always my understanding. My old Westerly 28 had the same
arrangement circa 1968. There's no reason not to go with turnbuckles
that I know of.

On 2008-03-09 17:01:55 -0400, terry said:

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.

Trying not to get into the politics of the situation....

I'd replace the rope ties and be done with it. There are some good
reasons for them including being able to cut away in appropriate
situations.

That said, I have rope links between my turnbuckles and the lifelines.
Turnbuckles are easier to adjust, but the rope's easier to cut with
what I'm likely to have on hand in an emergency.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

On Mar 10, 4:24*am, Dave wrote:
On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 14:01:55 -0700 (PDT), terry
said:

steel wire is fastened by a now dodgy looking (probably rotting) rope
tie.

Wondering what is the reason for these:
Possible alternatives?
a) Easy to cut and release with a knife in an emergency?
b) 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.

Obvously of no concern for GPS!

Could one use a metal turnbuckle and/or quick to disconnect pelican
hook instead?

The CS 27 lifelines were attached in somewhat similar fashion, though at the
bow pulpit rather than the pushpit. Fortunately, the original rigger for the
CS boats is still around, and participates regularly in the mailing list. He
tells me that the original thinking had several bases. Primarily, it was
concern about interference with RDF units. The ability to cut in an
emergency was also a factor. No reason you can't replace now with metal
turnbuckles or pelican hooks.

P.S. I just got replacements for my lifelines and elected to leave the old
type terminals and fasten with line as on the original. Primary reason?
Didn't want to do such precise measurements and run the chance of getting
the lengths wrong. This way, I just took the old ones up to Defender and
asked them to make me lines just like those I brought them. The old setup is
pretty forgiving in that regard. Of course my problem was a bit different
from yours in that I do have gates with pelican hooks by the cockpit.

Thank you to all who have commented/replied. As far as can tell don't
need new lines, boat has been stored for quite a few years. And I
think adjustments will be OK, terry

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

Armond Perretta wrote:
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.

Several years ago I rebuilt an ICS Nav4 Navtex aerial. (a passive
vertical helix). When working properly and mounted clear of nearby
metalwork we were getting weather reports from Split and Caligari while
in Tunisian waters. With a shorted turn, range was reduced to basically
line of sight.

It would have been very unhappy with a shorted turn around the whole
boat. NAVTEX is IMHO another reason to retain the traditional guardwire
lashings.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:
'Stingo' Albacore #1554 - 15' Early 60's, Uffa Fox designed,
All varnished hot moulded wooden racing dinghy.

On Mar 9, 1:01*pm, terry wrote:
All suggestions and/or experiences welcomed. Thanks.



THis was visited a while ago here. Try a search. As a result of the
past discussion and several interesting onions I chose to go with
amsteel small stuff. The reason being simply cheeper when considering
the swadged fittings required with SS wire.

WIth the Amsteel, or other similar low sretch synthetics, I could do
simpl fast eye splices, had good UV life, and extreamly tuff stuff.

Pleae consider ditching the SS wire for your sailor strainers.

Bob