Intro
During our pre-purchase inspection, the surveyor pointed out that our lifelines were in pretty bad shape. They were sagging and corroded. To make matters worse, they were the coated kind that can hide corrosion and damage where you can’t see it.
Parts
After a bit of shopping around, I decided to use West Marine. They had pretty good prices, and the guys at the rigging desk were very helpful. They answered all my questions, had good suggestions, and showed me how to measure for the new ones.
The old setup had a funky gate up near the pulpit. It was a weak point, added complexity, and was not needed. It was a pretty easy decision to eliminate that with our new setup. We also opted for the uncoated lines. This will allow us to keep them clean and inspect them more easily.
Removal
Getting the old lines off was not too bad. There was one that I could not get the fitting off and ended up cutting with a bolt cutter. The rest unscrewed like they should. We chose not to reuse any of the parts.
Install
When the new ones came, two were too long. I think this was because I used too stretchy of line when I measured. West Marine turned the changes around in a couple of days, and only charged me for the new ends, but not the labor.
Once they were back on, we liked how they looked, and we certainly felt more secure knowing that they were solid and new.
Issues
We did discover one issue. The fittings we used for the attached part of the gate had a bad tendency to tuck inside themselves and jam. This made it difficult to get them back into position, and since this usually happened once we were away from the dock, it was a potential safety issue.
I talked over several options with the guys at West Marine, but it looked like any replacement of the parts would require new cable as well, and would be pretty expensive. Finally we hit on the idea of filling the space with zip-ties. Now they can still pivot just fine, but can’t get wedge in themselves.
Problem solved for less than $1. 👍
