Lifeline Inspection

By Andrew Spaulding, email: andrew@crowleys.com

Obviously lifelines are important to your and your crew’s safety. As of this summer, I’ve been racing big (40’+) sailboats for 19 years and I can tell you that lifelines have saved me from going in the water or from not going all the way in the water literally dozens of times. It usually happened forward of the mast in decent breeze, but the result was the same...I relied on the lifelines being there to catch me. I guess the lesson is: If you

need the lifelines to do their job…you NEED them.

I think that the single biggest step forward in lifeline safety is installing lifelines without the vinyl covering. So many times, the vinyl cover that looks great when new ends up hiding damaged wire years later. The first sign of trouble is rusty stains in the vinyl cover at the swage ends. Once this starts it is not possible to reliably ensure that the lifeline is in good condition under the vinyl.

Typically the lifelines terminate at the bow and stern pulpits. It is in vogue now on racing boats to lash the lifeline with Dyneema or Spectra onto the stern and bow pulpit to save the weight of the turnbuckle. Using a poly or nylon line puts the safety of the crew in jeopardy. Multiple wraps of Dyneema or Spectra line is many times stronger than the wire which is necessary due to the loss of strength when the line makes a 180 degree small radius turn and is tied into a knot.

Expense is often cited as the reason to not replace suspect lifelines. A center gate lifeline for a 35’ foot boat (3/16" uncoated wire) totals at about $1600 installed on the boat. Granted this is a fair amount of money, but this is only $100 per week over a 4 month season. If you considered the life span of lifelines to be 10 years, the cost of a new set becomes $10 per week - less than 2 fruity rum drinks per week.

Call us for a free lifeline inspection when your boat comes back to the yard this winter. If you want a harbor inspection done this summer, please call customer service at 773.221.9990 ext 2.