upper guardrail question

solent clown

solent clown

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On the 31ft yacht we are about to take delivery of, I am considering fitting stainless tube as upper guardrails. As far as I understand that is not a popular choice because of potential MOB issues. I can remedy that with a hinge/pin arrangement. What other considerations are to be taken into acoount? Windage? Assume the stanchions will be strong as I will ensure they become so.
I ask the questions as some of the activities we intend to engage in may be aided by the addition of external lashing points for temporary equipment. The upper guardrail would do that job.
For the sake of this question,, please disregard windage and weight. It is a westerly so the cabin height is huge anyway!
 
solent clown said:
On the 31ft yacht we are about to take delivery of, I am considering fitting stainless tube as upper guardrails. As far as I understand that is not a popular choice because of potential MOB issues. I can remedy that with a hinge/pin arrangement. What other considerations are to be taken into acoount? Windage? Assume the stanchions will be strong as I will ensure they become so.
I ask the questions as some of the activities we intend to engage in may be aided by the addition of external lashing points for temporary equipment. The upper guardrail would do that job.
For the sake of this question,, please disregard windage and weight. It is a westerly so the cabin height is huge anyway!
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dont get too far under the bonnet, Just leave as is & go sailing :encouragement:
 
My friends bought a brand new Sirius 30D £££££££££££££ and that came with SS rails and not guardwires. If you are fitting them to ali stanchions then you will need to sleeve the joint with plastic to prevent corrosion.
 
sailorman said:
dont get too far under the bonnet, Just leave as is & go sailing :encouragement:
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if i left it as it is to go sailing we would be going straight to the bottom. It is a project with a huge hole in the bow. Getting under the bonnet with this one is something I am aiming to enjoy\, but only once, hence asking the question. Meanwhile we still have the trident to sail so at least get our kicks. I will have many more daft questions as we fix this boat, we want it long term as it is our dream boat, only an ancient westerly berwick, but it is the one we wanted. One thing you can be assured of, is it will get done, and advice will be heeded. just so happens I wish our pockets were deep enough to be able to take your advice instead of having to acquire a project. But while we are at it makes sense to try to plan ahead. Think round britain/.europe liveaboard when we feel like it, which will be about 8 months a year when we are ready
 
pvb said:
Oi, I was the proud owner of a Pentland some years ago...
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hee hee. For Karen and I it is all about the space below for the size, amazing, and the decent cockpit size. Being able to take the ground is important to us too, it bad to be a Berwick. Fixing the bow will be testng, the rest I just want to future proof and make ready to be adaptable enough accept my ideas. A solid guardrail would enable some potential mods that I would like to try and fail at
 
solent clown said:
my day job for last three decades involved bending tube. I was aiming for 21.7mm.
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A half-decent modern yacht does not have guardrails


2ldy69w.jpg
 
I've sailed extensively on a couple of very different boats fitted with those (because of owner's mobility problems). I really liked them for a whole series of reasons, including ability to hold onto them when moving about the boat or getting on and off board, something to lean against, something to tie all manner of stuff for which flexible guard wires wouldn't work or be ideal.

I think they might well actually make going overboard much less likely in the first place (you've something you can really hang onto, or grab if you do you fall or go over), and recovering a MOB easier in many cases, as those left on the boat would have something to lean on, brace themselves against, and keep them from ending up in the drink, too. With solid upper guardrails you probably don't need lower ones, and your MOB could be dragged aboard under them (see below re height etc.).

They actually look good on the right sort of boat.

Apart from weight, the only fundamental disadvantage I saw is that if you take a serious bump (we had a side on collision with one of the boats), they will get bent (probably less of a worry to you as you have the skills & kit to repair/replace).

If the stanchions and rails are all s/s and welded together they form an impressively strong structure, so any shock load is spread across all the bases, rather than just one or two.

Personally, if going down the solid guardrail route, I'd -
1) avoid hinge/pin etc. arrangements because of the loss of the strength which is one of the (as I see it) major advantages of the arrangements, and
2) think carefully about height, and probably have height rather greater than is conventional for guardwires (which are lower partly because of looks, and partly because they are so physically frail and vulnerable) - higher is safer and more useful on a range of fronts, and
3) probably do away with lower rails/wires.
 
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LittleSister said:
2) think carefully about height, and probably have height rather greater than is conventional for guardwires (which are lower partly because of looks, and partly because they are so physically frail and vulnerable) - higher is safer and more useful on a range of fronts
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Higher is good, but you'll probably run into problems with the jib and its sheets.

Maybe have them higher aft, and step down slightly somewhere around the shrouds?

Pete
 
prv said:
Higher is good, but you'll probably run into problems with the jib and its sheets.

Maybe have them higher aft, and step down slightly somewhere around the shrouds?

Pete
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Good points. The boats with solid guardrails I sailed were both larger (near 40') and had non-standard rigs/layouts, so I hadn't appreciated that potential problem.
 
If you want a look at a Sirius btw there are a couple at Haslar but quite rare otherwise. The boarding ladder in photo looks a useful feature if you are looking for upgrades?
 
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