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Dave22q · 26-03-2017, 14:23

I agree they should be designed for their purpose but prolonged leaning can loosen them just enough to leak with minimal loss of strength and it generally takes 2 to reseal one A particular peeve is grabbing a stanchion to pull a boat closer to the dock because bending to grab a line is more effort.

barnakiel · 26-03-2017, 15:01

It is 100% OK to pull outboard, but never inboard, by the lifelines, never by the stanchion!

Sort of like grade 7 education in my boatlife. Stanchions are built to different standards and some can take much abuse while others only very limited.

I think stanchions should at least take a strong pull in any direction by a heavy crew member. Otherwise their use is very limited.

Cheers,
b.

**StuM** · 26-03-2017, 16:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

The height of the upper "life line" in small boats - i.e. the vast majority of boats discussed here - is quite precisely calculated to catch you behind the knees and pitch you overboard.

"Life lines" in any small sail boat I've ever been in are a danger to life and limb, and ought, IMO, to be prohibited. The proper way to protect yourself and anyone else going forward is to use jack-line and tether.

Small sailboat life lines have kept me in the boat on more that one occasion. The solution is to keep your weight low while working on deck in precarious situations so that you slide into them, not tumble over them.

While it may look ungainly, crawling around the deck often makes sense.

appick · 26-03-2017, 16:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by StuM

Small sailboat life lines have kept me in the boat on more that one occasion. The solution is to keep your weight low while working on deck in precarious situations so that you slide into them, not tumble over them.

While it may look ungainly, crawling around the deck often makes sense.

Agreed 4 points of contact are better than 2.

**TrentePieds** · 26-03-2017, 17:15

Quote: "Small sailboat life lines have kept me in the boat on more that one occasion. The solution is to keep your weight low while working on deck in precarious situations so that you slide into them, not tumble over them"

Yes, I agree that the solution is to crawl - if necessary on your belly :-)!

MySaintedMother, who was full of little aphorisms, said: If you are going to take it to sea, build it so it can take the weight of a well-grown man thrown against it in a seaway" Dunno where she got stuff like that from :-)

But she was right, of course. And the stanchions I see around here surely don't meet that test.

As for keeping you in, "life-lines" may or they may not. When I first came here I told the story of missing a snub on a cleat, slipping on several folds of spinnaker lying on deck and disappearing feet first out under the lower "life-line". NewYear's Day too! No harm done because the crew was good, but I took a severe ribbing. Something about "a stitch through the nose" or something like that :-)

Netting can help of course.

Just yesterday I was measuring up for a mod to let the deck-sweeper slip twixt the pulpit and the fore-end of the lifelines. MyBeloved insists we must have them. But then, she is still a lubber :-)

TrentePieds

CAR54 · 26-03-2017, 17:23

My sailing friends in England call them guard rails making them sound much less draconian sounding then life lines. That being said ABYC should step up and set a standard to build too.

hafa · 26-03-2017, 17:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by CAR54

My sailing friends in England call them guard rails making them sound much less draconian sounding then life lines. That being said ABYC should step up and set a standard to build too.

+2 for lifelines/guard rails. Whilst I do not put my weight on them, I find having a reference point for the edge very helpful. Furthermore, I'd rather have a stanchion bent than a first timer slide off into the water while we're puttering around the calm lagoon. MOB drills should be planned.

FWIW, stanchion mounting is one thing that Hunter got right on the 40.5, as the stanchions themselves are bolted directly to the heavy aluminium toe rail.

**StuM** · 26-03-2017, 17:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

MySaintedMother, who was full of little aphorisms, said: If you are going to take it to sea, build it so it can take the weight of a well-grown man thrown against it in a seaway" Dunno where she got stuff like that from :-)

From Mrs. Cosmopilite ?

markpierce · 26-03-2017, 17:55

Hasn't been an issue with one-and-a-quarter-inch stanchions and connecting railings welded to the gunwale.

**TrentePieds** · 26-03-2017, 18:41

Quote: "From Mrs. Cosmopilite?"

Unlikely, since MSM was entirely untutored in English :-)! In fact she was - poor soul - so entirely parochial that anything originating outside the Danish Realm was viewed with extreme suspicion. "We DANES", she would say (in Danish, of course), "do not chew gum!" "We DANES", she would say, "do not eat goat meat!". "We DANES..." So I suspect the influence may very well have been the other way about :-)!

Interestingly, she was a wonderful cook - totally unaware that her style was very much Escoffier. When I was 10 or 11, I was called to the kitchen which, given the time and the place, was normally out of bounds for male members of the family. MSM: "I am going to teach you to cook". Me: "Mo-omm! I'm a boy. Why would I have to learn to cook?!" MSM: "Women are fickle- you will learn to cook!"

TrentePieds