Replacing Life Lines

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asteven221

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Time to replace the old plastic coated life lines with (most likely) non plastic covered wire.

I fancy doing it myself rather than get someone to do it for me, which means I will need a crimping tool for the connections. I know there are fitting available that don't require crimping, but I would prefer to invest in a tool so I can use it again for other tasks.

Can anyone recommend a suitable tool for casual use? I am thinking of a tool that can do the following sort of fitting and all the associated fittings:-

Stainless Steel Wire Rope Swage Stud Threaded Terminals Left Handed - GS Products

The stainless steel wire I intend to use will be 5mm or 6mm.

Thanks.
 
If you want the fittings to be strong, get them fitted professionally; you can still usually thread them through stanchions.
 
What do you mean by life lines ? I thought they were the creases in the middle of your palm strentching up to your fingers. If you mean guard rails then use ss if you mean jackstays use flat webbing. Sorry if this sounds astringent - just trying to know what the issue is in cae I can help
 
Halo said:
What do you mean by life lines ? I thought they were the creases in the middle of your palm strentching up to your fingers. If you mean guard rails then use ss if you mean jackstays use flat webbing. Sorry if this sounds astringent - just trying to know what the issue is in cae I can help
Click to expand...
No, he means guard wires, as used on a sailing yacht..
 
asteven221 said:
Time to replace the old plastic coated life lines with (most likely) non plastic covered wire.

I fancy doing it myself rather than get someone to do it for me, which means I will need a crimping tool for the connections. I know there are fitting available that don't require crimping, but I would prefer to invest in a tool so I can use it again for other tasks.

Can anyone recommend a suitable tool for casual use? I am thinking of a tool that can do the following sort of fitting and all the associated fittings:-

Stainless Steel Wire Rope Swage Stud Threaded Terminals Left Handed - GS Products

The stainless steel wire I intend to use will be 5mm or 6mm.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
If you get on to the Jimmy Green Marine website, you will be able to order guardwires to suit.
The usual arrangement includes a swaged eye terminal at the forward end, to be shackled to a ring on your pulpit, while the aft end has a swaged-on threaded stud which will fit through the holes in your stanchions and can then have an eye fitting screwed on which can be fixed to the ring on your pushpit with a lashing, the purpose of which is to allow you to quickly cut it free to allow a MOB to be pulled aboard more easily.
 
asteven221 said:
Can anyone recommend a suitable tool for casual use? I am thinking of a tool that can do the following sort of fitting and all the associated fittings:-
Click to expand...

The correct tool to swage fitting on to wire rope is a roller swager. The are quite expensive and generally only riggers can justify the cost



asteven221 said:
The stainless steel wire I intend to use will be 5mm or 6mm.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have solid tubular hand rails but on a 15 meter boat.

Stainless steel rod is some times used for rigging so I wander is solid rod (6mm o/d) could be used with the ends threaded with a M6 die and then end fittings screwed onto the end of the rod.
 
I gave up with metal lines a long time ago- I now use flat webbing from Jimmy Green which I replace every several years. Biggest benefit is your feet don’t roll on the wire - when things get lively not slipping is important. I like the dyneema idea too.
 
Guard rails and lifelines are the same thing really. It would seem that Americans use the term lifelines whereas Brits use the term guard rails or lines but the two terms are interchangeable really.
Things have moved on and instead of ss wire more sailors are now using dyneema for lifelines/guard rails and also for jackstays (instead of webbing which has its disadvantages) and there is plenty about such use on internet. Using Brummel splices it is easy to make dyneema lines up without any special tools or indeed now rigging companies or rope suppliers (eg Jimmy Green - but there are others) will make them up for you. Use 6mm dyeema.
 
The only note of caution for use of dyneema as guardrails/lifelines is that if you fly spinnakers the sheets can cut the dyneema, it melts, and for this reason are not approved (unless the rule has changed) for racing yachts. Historically the opposite happened, the stainless lifelines cut the sheets.

Jonathan
 
I Must admit I hate wire or rope lifelines.

This is because when you grab then to climb over or brace yourself the lifelines wobble about to make me feel safe. They are also generally too low so then to tip you over.
 
Rogershaw said:
The correct tool to swage fitting on to wire rope is a roller swager. The are quite expensive and generally only riggers can justify the cost





I have solid tubular hand rails but on a 15 meter boat.

Stainless steel rod is some times used for rigging so I wander is solid rod (6mm o/d) could be used with the ends threaded with a M6 die and then end fittings screwed onto the end of the rod.
Click to expand...
Stainless rod is used under very high tension in standing rigging that could not, IMHO, be achieved in a guardrail setting unless the pushpit and pulpit structures and their attchments to the deck were re-engineered to an impractically high degree of robustness.
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
Stainless rod is used under very high tension in standing rigging that could not, IMHO, be achieved in a guardrail setting unless the pushpit and pulpit structures and their attchments to the deck were re-engineered to an impractically high degree of robustness.
Click to expand...


Yes but as a safety/guard rail the rail is not subject to the continuous loads when sailing and supporting the stick.

The base of the stanchions are the most stressed point in any arrangement solid, wire, rope or solid bar.
 
asteven221 said:
Time to replace the old plastic coated life lines with (most likely) non plastic covered wire.

I fancy doing it myself rather than get someone to do it for me, which means I will need a crimping tool for the connections....
Click to expand...

I looked into this a year ago but couldn't make the economics of a crimping tool stand up. There aren't any other jobs that I'd use one for except making guardrails for friends. And I can do without extra work!

I considered dyneema but couldn't see the benefit really. Not versus the chafe/cutting risk. And using the rigging design tool on the Jimmy Green website, made up Dyneema guardrails was more expensive than wire ones.

I decided to buy the wire, get one end crimped by the local sailmaker, then use swageless fittings on the other end. Or learn to splice wire. One of the boat owners here knocked up in no time splices in a wire that I intend to drop over rocks for a shoreline. I tested it with my big cockpit winch to the brick electricity box on the concrete pontoon and couldn't make the splices budge at all by eye, at least.
 
Rogershaw said:
I Must admit I hate wire or rope lifelines.

This is because when you grab then to climb over or brace yourself the lifelines wobble about to make me feel safe. They are also generally too low so then to tip you over.
Click to expand...
Yeah, one of the first ticks in the box when looking over the boat I now own was the height of the guardrails and the toerails. But for goodness sakes, don't be hauling yourself aboard with them! Even decently fixed stanchions can leak if levered back and forth often enough. Use the shrouds!

I'm with you on the unsuitability of guardrails for steadying or bracing yourself against. Soon after getting my boat pinned over at 60° or more in a fierce squall, with the boom well in the water, I fitted ''rollbars'' over my cabin, granny bars at the mast and brought jackstays and cockpit tether points towards the centreline. I'd have been pitched right over the leeward guardrail while I was standing on the normally vertical back of the cockpit seat to release the genoa!
 
Did mine a couple of years ago replacing covered wire with 4mm 1 x 19 wire and swageless compression fittings (eyes, studs + eye nuts for lacing). All seems OK and plenty strong enough. 28ft boat, 4 wires cost about £130 all in.
Used GS products. (note: not all swageless compression fittings appear on that page.)
 
I replaced mine with 6mm Dyneema mostly covered with a Dyneema chafe cover to see issues with any other cordage causing issues. Ie the Dyneema chafe cover is more sacrificial as there have been reported problems with sheets causing friction and melting the Dyneema lines.

Advantages in my mind are;
  • Cheap; Especially if you look for bargain Dyneema as I do
  • Less risk of injury from broken SS strands
  • Less risk of hidden issues compared to SS Guardwires
  • Easy to see issues
  • Way over strength; Breaking strain in region of 2000Kg
  • Easy to fit
I know its not allowed under certain racing rules. However I would challenge those as the data is limited for SS line failure vs Dyneema line failures. The Dyneema issues can be engineered out with a chafe sacrificial cover

Mine have a loop that is cow hitched to the bow stainless and a thimble is loop spliced at the aft end and lashed on.
 
Rogershaw said:
Yes but as a safety/guard rail the rail is not subject to the continuous loads when sailing and supporting the stick.

The base of the stanchions are the most stressed point in any arrangement solid, wire, rope or solid bar.
Click to expand...
What I omitted to say was that I feel that without this high tension loading on the s/s rigging rod used as a guardwire, it will very quickly be bent into ugly looking shapes due to its not having the flexibility of the wire it is replacing.
 
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