Replacing Lifelines

[chef2sail]

One of my winter/ spring projects while the boat is winterized is to replace the lifelines as they look rather sad and may be original equipment to Haleakula (1983 C%C 35 MKIII). I have decided to go with 1/8 inch wire vs line, but there are mixed discussions whether I should get the coated or the bare wire. Does anyone have experience with this?

I am planning on buying the swage tool for this. I am cassuming the nicropress tools are not sufficient as they only do aluminium and brass swages, and that I will need a heavy duty tool for the compression of the stainless fittings. Does anyone have recommendation s in this that they have used themselves. I have done the usual internet reasrch here on what I can order, but I am looking for someone who has actually bought a tool(s) themselves and done this project themselves.

Thanks

Dave

[HoffaLives]

i had my lines done this fall and went with bare as the old wire had deteriorated under the plastic. 27 years out of a set isn't bad, but the plastic made it hard to spot just how bad the lines were. inside the plastic one of the lines had only 2 strands unbroken, and this was only discovered by chance.

[sailingdog]

I would go with bare stainless steel wire instead of the coated stuff. Recent changes to ISAF/ORC rules require non-coated lifelines due to the tendency of coated lifelines to corrode and fail under the coating.

As for swage tools, I would probably go with mechanical fittings instead. The advantage of mechanical fittings, like the Hayn Hi-Mod, are that they are user-installable and re-usable.