New lifelines - plastic covered or not?

P

Pinnacle

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 Jan 2006
Messages
5,329
Visit site
Contemplating replacing the stainless steel guard wires on the boat - they are now 10 yrs old. The current ones have the white plastic covering.

Should I have the same again, or get ones without the plastic cover? :confused:


Ps - I think I already know the answer...........;)
 
it is possible that using a plastic covering could make it impossible to inspect the wire for any defects.
 
dmmbruce said:
Use dynema instead.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't, mainly because it would be difficult to tension unless you envisage still using a bottle screw at the end.

Pinnacle - mine are of a similar age and last year I stripped the cover off to see what state the wire was in, surprisingly good! What did strike me was how thin the wire was, so my thought was to go for unsheathed using thicker wire.
 
I replaced my plastic covered guard rail wires last year with thicker stainless wire rope. The reason I replaced it was because the plastic was brittle and dirty and the lines were old. I stripped the plastic off and the wire looked in good condition. One down side of the plain wire is that it cuts into the plastic stanchion caps, the plastic coated wire didn't do this.

I still have the old lines so maybe I will dig them out and look at them a bit more critically.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
One down side of the plain wire is that it cuts into the plastic stanchion caps, the plastic coated wire didn't do this.
Click to expand...
Are you saying the wire is rove through the plastic caps - I mean those on top?
Sorry if stupid question but not current with new development, learning, learning ...

Nothing other then a test for wire, not much to see on it; as strong as its weakest.
Whatever happened to laminated plastics, like tufnol... this would probably cost in gold today.
 
Last edited:
Rossynant said:
Are you saying the wire is rove through the plastic caps .....
Click to expand...

Yes, the caps fit into the top of the stanchion tubes and the wire is fed through the plastic tops. The hole in the top is about 1.5 diameters of the wire, maybe less but not much, to allow the swaged terminal to pass through.

Its worth noting that modern alloy stanchions have the holes wire integral with the stanchions (turned or forged I am not sure). My boat is quite old and uses tubes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Whatever will they think of next. So what happens when a body is hurled onto - caps come off stanchions? Always thought it goes through the steel tube itself :o

Thank You, man learns throughout life :)
 
LadyInBed said:
I wouldn't, mainly because it would be difficult to tension unless you envisage still using a bottle screw at the end.

Pinnacle - mine are of a similar age and last year I stripped the cover off to see what state the wire was in, surprisingly good! What did strike me was how thin the wire was, so my thought was to go for unsheathed using thicker wire.
Click to expand...

There is no problem using a lashing (dyeema) to tighten dyneema life lines.
Lashings (dyneema) is used to tighten wire lifelines also - no difference here.

Using lashing is recommended - easier to cut when you need get the life lines out of the way in a hurry (MOB situation)

The good thing about using dyneema is
- Easier to spot damages
- Splicing uncovered dyneema is easy to learn - suited for DIY
 
Rossynant said:
... So what happens when a body is hurled onto - caps come off stanchions? ....
Click to expand...

No they don't come off. They are not wee, loose plastic fittings, they are substantial and an interference fit into the tube.
 
ORC rules specifically rule out plastic-covered guard rails.

I've used dyneema for the past 20 years, far kinder to fall against, the same price/m as stainless of the same diameter (and slightly stronger than plastic-covered of the same diameter) and you save the price of all the ends and fittings.

There are downsides - you need to cover any made-whipping with leather - it's more extensible than wire so needs more frequent tensioning and ity does chafe and need protection at points where it passed through stanchions.
 
dmmbruce said:
Use dynema instead.

Mike
Click to expand...

I am assuming you mean dyneema with an outer covering
Uncovered dynema would suffer from uv degradation
If covered then the actual dynema would have to be thinner to allow the covering to go through the holes in the staunchion so one would need to check the load it can take
Using it for the end lashing it would be not so bad as it would be several thicknesses so need not be so strong but still susceptible to UV. However dynema does suffer strength loss at kink points & I would worry that gradual loss of strength could become a safety issue
I find my guardwires get a lot of abrasion. Would dynema last as long
Lastly is there much of a cost saving?
 
Rossynant said:
Whatever will they think of next. So what happens when a body is hurled onto - caps come off stanchions? Always thought it goes through the steel tube itself :o

Thank You, man learns throughout life :)
Click to expand...

No, the caps don't come off the stanchions. Anyone who's looked closely will know that the stanchion goes up into the plastic cap, and that the wire actually goes through the metal stanchion. The plastic cap is merely cosmetic.
 
pvb said:
Anyone who's looked closely will know that the stanchion goes up into the plastic cap, and that the wire actually goes through the metal stanchion. The plastic cap is merely cosmetic.
Click to expand...

Not in every case. On some boats, probably older GRP boats, the plastic cap is fitted into the tube and the wire passes through the plastic caps only. I have looked closely at my own and other yachts when trying to find replacement caps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top