Lifelines

[JonnyBoats]

What are the best practices for sailboat lifelines?

Does anyone use norseman or stalock fittinges on lifelines are swaged fittings always used?

Is uncoated 1/4 inch 7x19 S/S wire yhe best wire to use?

[CharlieJ]

Uncoated wire is the best, although some are switching to some of the more exotic lines instead. Coated wire is something not allowed on offshore racers by the way- can't be checked for corrosion.

I have nicro press swages on the ends of my lines. They are plenty strong enough and simple to do onboard.

Whatever end fittings you use, I always prefer to lash one end of the life lines, rather than use a shackle on each end. that way, IF you need to get rid of the line in a hurry to get someone back onboard, it's easy to just cut. I have pelican hooks aft on upper and lower lines, and lashings at the bow pulpit.

[fusto]

I'm planning on redoing my lifelines (seeing as the boat didnt come with any) and I was going to use the Johnson lifeline system.
They have all the usual lifeline suspects and you can swage them yourself (with a $40 tool)!
All kinds of fittings.
Was going to go with 3/16 wire.

I have no experience with the hand swaged lifelines personally, just seemed like a good idea. Other Johnson products I've run into are pretty good quality.

Their site online is pretty lousy.
For hand crimp stuff, its page 12-16.

[catamount]

My rigger is fabricating new lifelines for me right now -- 3/16" diameter 1x19 un-coated 316 stainless steel wire, with machine-swaged fittings: turnbuckle at one end, swivel gate eye at the other. I will use some high-tech line to lash the swivel gate eye to the eyes/loops on the stern pushpit; the lashing can be quickly cut with a knife in an emergency. Also between the turnbuckle and the lashing, I have enough adjustment so that I don't have to worry about getting the measurements exactly right (just be sure to spec them too short, rather than too long).

I don't have any gates, and couldn't afford to add any this year, but this set up will allow me to add gates in the future.

I would avoid hand-swaged fittings (your life is worth more, isn't it?), and you can't really make eyes for nico-press in 1x19 wire. Norseman or Hi-Mods would work, although I don't think they have gate fittings, pelican hooks and such...

FWIW, my old lifelines were coated wire, and corrosion is rampant underneath the coating (they were in really bad shape!). It's an oxygen-starved environment, something you want to avoid with stainless steel.

edit- use open-body turnbuckles, rather than the closed-barrel type...

Regards,

[Al]

I just replaced my lifelines and I went with 1x19 316 uncoated stainless, which is about 25% stronger than the traditional 7x7 or 7x19 wire. I used Suncor Quick Attach swageless fittings, which are like StaLok, etc., but are easier to attach and at least as strong as the wire. (They actually cost more than having machine swaged fittings made, but that is another and longer story.) I would hesitate to use the Johnson hand swaged fittings since they reduce the strength of the finished lifeline by about 30 percent.

I know that many folks now attach one end of their lifelines with high tech rope lashings so they can cut them quickly in an emergency. However, as Practical Sailor rather convincingly demonstrated, high tech lines hold knots very poorly, so I wonder what the ultimate strength of wire lifelines with a lashed end is. Does anyone have any data?

[MikeD]

In regards to cutting the lashed lines - why not add a clip to both ends? Then you wouldn't have to carry a knife around all the time...

Al, who did you use for a supplier?

[Rachel]

I'll second (fourth?) the recommendation for uncoated wire, if you use wire. I had a friend almost fall overboard (in the anchorage), when he just barely leaned up against a coated lifeline wire while untying the dinghy; it broke at the (invariably) rusty spot right where the wire emerges from the coating to attach to a fitting. Since he wasn't leaning hard on it, he managed to catch himself, but still. We used some ~3/8" three-strand line as a lifeline until we got back to the U.S. -- it worked fine as a lifeline, but it was a bit thick for clothes-pins ;-)

As others have mentioned, stainless requires oxygen to produce the protective coating that makes it "stainless," and that spot is the very worst combination of an abundance of salt and a lack of air.

Rachel

[CharlieJ]

I'm NEVER EVER on board without a knife on my belt. Laura has one on her person also when we are sailing, usually on a lanyard.

Personally I think it's foolish to be onboard a sailing vessel WITHOUT a knife where I can quickly reach it.

Also , my knife is easily openable with one hand. Leatherman Wave in a nylon belt sheath. ALWAYS on my person.

If someone is dragging over the side, with a tether hanging over that lifeline there would be a tremedous load on the wire- you might not be ABLE to just "unclip" I want something I can get rid of NOW!!!

[MikeD]

If someone is dragging over the side, with a tether hanging over that lifeline there would be a tremedous load on the wire- you might not be ABLE to just "unclip" I want something I can get rid of NOW!!!

If someone were dragging, then it seems like the lashing should be on the after portion of the lifeline setup rather than the bow. What about lashings on both ends, or an entire lifeline made up of a line that could be cut?

[Robert The Gray]

The johnson marine hardware site has some nice fittings especially for spectra lifelines. they are called "splice line fittings":
http://www.csjohnson.com/marcatalog/6.html

I find that the knots used by fishermen for monofiliment line work well for spectra. My old stand by for lashings is the quadruple square knot. While any knot reduces the strength of a line with a lashing one can get to absurd breaking strengths fairly quickly. the lashing is mostly to replace the turnbuckle as a device to tension the system. A thimbled splice would be fine to terminate the line if the tension can be taken in else where. I wrap all my lashings in riggers tape to keep the look clean. spectra does not rust.

r

[CharlieJ]

Rope lifelines have been used, yes. I don't think we'd want them- as was mentioned above- they'd make good lifelines but poor clothes lines, which is about all the good most small boat life lines are anyway. Most are too low to REALLY serve as life lines. Most are just at back of knee height and would serve to trip you rather than stop you going over unless you were lying down. But that's how things are- the boats are too small to carry taller stanchions..

As far as the lashing fore and aft. On Tehani we have pelican hooks aft, so we can drop the lifelines to make bording from a dock easier. So I put the lashings up front. Not as easy to reach it's true, but then the boat isn't but a 25 footer, so it's not THAT far to the bow.

Our tethers allow us to reach the mast from the cockpit, but no further. We can also go below and lie on the quarter berth without unhooking. At sea we rig jack lines and clip to those before leaving the cockpit. Plus the lifelines, and bimini frame make a pretty healthy "cage" around the cockpit- Highly unlikely anyone is going over except forward of the cockpit. And the tethers are too short to go over the stern directly. If someone did go over, we'd heave the boat to, or otherwise loose the sheets so she loses way.

I was just pointing out that sometimes mechanical devices can be tough to use, but a line will ALWAYS succumb to a sharp knife blade.

Of course, the number one, absolute rule is-

DON"T fall off the boat!!

[Al]

Mike:

I used RiggingOnly.com for the wire and to swage a pelican hook on one end of each upper lifeline. I got the Suncor fittings directly from Suncor.

[catamount]

In regards to cutting the lashed lines - why not add a clip to both ends?

3.14.2 Lifelines required in Special Regulations shall be
"taut".
a) As a guide, when a deflecting force of 50 N (5.1
kgf, 11.2 lbf) is applied to a lifeline midway
between supports, the lifeline should not deflect
more than 50 mm.

Depending on their design, many clips are hard to operate quickly when the lines are "taut."

[fusto]

I would hesitate to use the Johnson hand swaged fittings since they reduce the strength of the finished lifeline by about 30 percent.

Really? I didnt know that.
They reduce the strength in the wire? Or just the strength in the fitting?

I figured it had to be less strong than a machine swage but didnt know it was by that much.

[MikeD]

A timely thread. I'll be needing lifelines this season as well. Thanks for all the info guys!

[JonnyBoats]

If anyone would like to see a more technical piece on lifelines, see http://www.ussailing.org/safety/Studies ... _study.htm which is a study on lifelines done jointly by U.S. Naval Academy/US SAILING.

[Al]

I didn't mean that hand crimping weakened the actual wire; it weakens the lifeline assembly at the swage. According to the C. Sherman Johnson web site, properly hand crimped lifelines will withstand 65-70% of the pull out strain of 7x7 wire. So that 30-35% less strength on 7x7 wire which is about 20-25% less strong than 1x19 wire.

[Summersdawn]

I wouldn't worry about the hand swaged fittings. The stanchions will pull out of the deck or bend in half well before you ever reach 65% of the wires breaking strength.