Guardrails

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IJL

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Somewhere down my list of jobs is to sort out my guardrails which are probably original and so 30+ years old. The orginals seem to be in plastic covered wire which has been turned around a small thimble and just whipped in place. This doesn't look very strong ( but has clearly lasted).

I've googled the various fittings and been a bit shocked at the prices, what are the DIY options for fitting the wire ends? Do they have to be wire would rope do?
 
PLastimo used to make a plastic/nylon guard rail which was easy to swage ends on to with special fittings. I replaced the old tired guardrails on my old baot with them. I think the idea of lashings at the end is that if youi need to haul someopne back on board, you can cut the guard rails and easily restore them with a new lashing.
 
Plastic coated ss wire is seriously frowned on in some circles, it is sometimes prone to crevice corrosion and sudden failure.
 
Quite common to have talurit eyes put on the ends and then use shackles, pelican hooks and/or lashings to attach to pulpits and pushpits. Only drawback is that you can't remove the wires without taking the stanchions out as well.
 
Parafil is a plastic covered plastic filament cored stuff, used on lifeboats.
Nice and soft but just as strong as wire, Quite cheap but the terminals are quite expensive, but what I did was bent it round stainless thimbles and whipped it to itself, then shackled it to the pulpit and used lashings at the pushpit end. Whipping was covered with amalgamating tape to keep the UV off.
 
IJL said:
The orginals seem to be in plastic covered wire which has been turned around a small thimble and just whipped in place. This doesn't look very strong ( but has clearly lasted).
Click to expand...

The shrouds and stays on this vessel are simply turned around a (large) thimble and whipped (actually, seized) in place. Obviously I don't know how well the seizing on your wires was done, but it's not automatically inadequate.

The covering there is grease, canvas, marline and tar, rather than plastic :)

Pete
 
The function of a guardwire is to catch a body being flung at it, so it needs to remain strong and a cheap look-alike system may not achieve this.

Racing rules mostly prohibit the use of plastic coated wire as the condition cannot be assessed. SS wire is good and you'll know when it's failing as the broken strands will rip into your hands and leave blood stains on the deck. Yes - I've recently changed mine! Rope will initially have the neccessary strength, but will weaken with UV exposure and will chafe at the stanchions. The other special materials are likely to cost just as much by the time you've got all the special fittings required.

7x7 wire can be used with a talurit eye, as stated above, or compression fittings. 1x19 wire will need either swaged ends or compression fittings (the two types of wire take different inserts in these fittings).

Rob.
 
billcowan said:
Parafil is a plastic covered plastic filament cored stuff, used on lifeboats.
Nice and soft but just as strong as wire, Quite cheap but the terminals are quite expensive, but what I did was bent it round stainless thimbles and whipped it to itself, then shackled it to the pulpit and used lashings at the pushpit end. Whipping was covered with amalgamating tape to keep the UV off.
Click to expand...

I know this thread is quite old, but still valid. My boat, an Evolution, had Parafil rope and fittings since it was built some 30 years ago. 15 years ago I replaced with the same rope. Since then the boat has been in the Mediterranean sun and the plastic coating is as good as new. Just goes to prove the durability of the stuff.
 
billcowan said:
Parafil is a plastic covered plastic filament cored stuff, used on lifeboats.
Nice and soft but just as strong as wire, Quite cheap but the terminals are quite expensive, but what I did was bent it round stainless thimbles and whipped it to itself, then shackled it to the pulpit and used lashings at the pushpit end. Whipping was covered with amalgamating tape to keep the UV off.
Click to expand...

I did pretty much the same except I used Dyneema around an SS thimble and heat shrink sleeving to protect the whipping. I haven't thrown myself against it but the weak point has to be the terminations and I'd trust those to do the job.
 
IJL said:
Somewhere down my list of jobs is to sort out my guardrails which are probably original and so 30+ years old. The orginals seem to be in plastic covered wire which has been turned around a small thimble and just whipped in place. This doesn't look very strong ( but has clearly lasted).

I've googled the various fittings and been a bit shocked at the prices, what are the DIY options for fitting the wire ends? Do they have to be wire would rope do?
Click to expand...

I don't know whether someone has already said this: my apologies if so....but the is no problem with non wire guardwires, ie rope/cord; I am told builders only got in the habit or wire for potential racing reg., I don't know how true that is!
Most guard wires are only trip wires anyway; however, I did make up cord replacements for my (then) Jaguar 27 (using a dark plain colour, non stretch) are very effective(?) they were too, and easy to adjust/tension.

(Yes it has all been said...sorry for repeating stuff...but then, hey! must be right?):D
 
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In the end I used a braided line around the original thimble with a stopper knot. It all seems solid and while stainless steel would have looked better the line was cheaper. When I cut the old lines off one of them turned out to be coax cable.

I do wonder about the value of the rails, a line At knee height is not going to stop me going for a swim
 
I believe if you are going to be 'flung' at your guard rails you will have to have you center of gravity quite low for them to be of any use really, as someone has already pointed out that at knee height, or just above you will topple over.
Cordage has been used for many a year on many a boat so I see no real reason not to use rope.
 
In the 21st Century rope is a Plan B when stainless steel wire is not available !

Plastic covered wire should be treated with great distrust, as a lot of it is mild ( easily corroding ) steel, even if stainless it may suffer the crevice corrosion mentioned above.

I know 2 people who went overboard when plastic covered guardrails failed under light loads, not even ' heavy weather ' stories.

I'd strongly suggest fitting Pelican hooks at least to the pushpit ends of stainless wires, they are propably the cheapest and best modification I ever made to my boat; not only a Person Overboard Aid, a huge boon when getting on and off into a dinghy at a mooring, and at marinas they can be released and clipped to the mid stanchions, keeping the wires tight to hold the fenders in position while allowing easy access in and out of the cockpit.

Yes to have stainless wire and Pelican hooks it may require removing the stanchions and taking them to the chandlery to have the guardrails led through them, after some carefull measurements to allow for the Pelican hooks.

A cheap DIY solution to shortening wire ropes is ' Bulldog grips ' but these are only a short term idea.

Having rope lashings to the guardrails from pulpit and pushpit was a 1970's idea to avoid Quadrantal Error on RDF, the only electronic navigation aid available to most yotties then.

The theory was one could also cut the lashings to drop the guardrails and get people overboard back onboard.

The snag was this left the boat in probably heavy weather with no guardrails on at least one side !

Please do fit Pelican Hooks, I have no connection with any manufacturer.
 
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wazza said:
I believe if you are going to be 'flung' at your guard rails you will have to have you center of gravity quite low for them to be of any use really, as someone has already pointed out that at knee height, or just above you will topple over.
Cordage has been used for many a year on many a boat so I see no real reason not to use rope.
Click to expand...

+1....so I did. It was practical (as a knee high guard wire could be?), easy, cheap, quick. Would do the same again.
 
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