Life lines

Thanks DP. How do you cover the ends? Heat shrink?

What size dynema? 6mm?

YNZ copied and pasted 'covered by a sheath' or what NZ call double braids i.e braided cover over a braided core. So you have to use a covered line to be YNZ compliant but you can have equally as good, possibly even better without the cover but YNZ won't like it. Baring in mind here we tend to believe, from what we see and are told, most YNZ inspectors aren't up with the wording and allow most as long as it looks sort of OK.

Some are using a std covered dyneema like we use on halyards. While that sort of complies with the rules most of the ropes being used are weaker than wire, some a lot, so you have to ask yourself 'Am I making line just to comply with a rule made by someone who will never use my lines or am I making lines that may save my life?'. The rules say you need a 4mm line so 4mm Supercable gives you 4mm of Dyneema, if you use std polyester over braided dyneema you'll have maybe 2mm of dyneema or what could be 2000kg verse 400kg. I believe there are some discussions going on around defineing the rope better due to this quirk, which personaly I think is smart as they are not called 'life' lines just for shits n giggles.

I'd be using 4mm on my 26fter as 3mm will be similar to a garrote if you get thrown on it. While 3 to 4 doesn't sound much it is a 33% increase so it is indeed quite much.

So Mr Sabre if you want to be YNZ complaint you need a double braid but if you don't need to be YNZ compliant I'd be using a basic 4mm uncovered Umpy.

Note the swap to 'Umpy' which the shortened name of the material being UHMwPE. Dyneema is a brand name of one manufacturers of that material, Spectra is another, there are many including basic no name Umpy. We have Dyneema, Spectra and Umpy (aka Chineema ). I'd be happy with the no name Umpy but I am ONLY talking about ours here as we know what to buy and we also test extensively so our Umpy is exceeding SK78 numbers. BUT and it's a biggy, there is a LOT of shit out there claiming to be Dyneema and it's far from it, a lot is weak and a lot have no UV additives so you need to be wise in your purchasing.

Or you can stay with wire. It is OK and does the job well, so much so we still suggest that over Umpy on some boats, mainly distance cruisers who drag dingys etc over their lines a lot.

One bonus of fibre is weight savings, I'd say on a 26fter around 2.5kg. Not huge but to a racer it all counts. Just swapped a few 1020 backstays and lifelines to fibre and saving them about 85% so a good number.

Another is you can get rid of all metal, about the only metal we use in fibre lifelines are Pelican hooks on the transom or side doors.

If you use wire and wait hose over it the hose must not be a tight fit and must have a drain hole on the bottom midway between the stanchions to let water out. The is A VERY GOOD thing to do. We always do autopsies on gear brought in for replacement and pulling apart of sets of wire lifelines can be a freaky experience in seeing just how shit they have got inside the tube out of site.

And if you do it right you can colour match your lifelines to your boat

I went a size up with mine for the same reason.

Oh gawd, that's a awfully long time to make a finished line that looks worse and is weaker than could be done in 1/3 of the time. Luckily for everyone he's using a massive over sized line, I do hope they follow suit.

Thanks, will have a look. I actually only watched a few minutes of the youtube vid but my takeaway was that I want 6mm and won't bother with a cover.

I have done a bit of splicing so while very slow at it I should be capable enough to do it.

How do you attach to the push/pulpits? Thimbles or lash?

Hello, found this thread on the mighty google.

Anyone know where that SK90 supercable can be bought from? I went to Chains Ropes Anchors but they only have 4mm SK78 and the guy there didn't think a Supercable SK90 even existed.

I found it in the Amare catalogue, but can't find it for sale anywhere in the world...

Thanks!