Life Lines? West marine and crimp?

[ltgoshen]

I have pulled the life lines with the vinyl cover off the boat. I want to go with SS 3/16" 7X19 but where should I have them made? West Marine? Should I buy the cable from West Marine and use the crimp style ends? My pelican hooks look to be in good condition. the photos below were taken with my phone. See if you can tell what I have and if the end can be re-used. Thanks again for your help in advance.


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And the other end is

[MarkSF]

My local rigger just finished making mine.

I decided that lifelines were a bad place to start experimenting with doing my own crimping, so wanted an experienced rigger to make them.

Your options would seem to be :

1) Get a local rigger to make them (that includes West Marine's rigger)

2) Send them to someone like riggingonly.com

3) Make them yourself out of dyneema

4) Make them yourself out of a swageless system

[PorFin]

It,

I'd send a PM to knothead -- he's a crackerjack rigger, and he can give you the best advice of anyone around here. He's the SS of SSMR Rigging, located in St Pete/Tampa Bay. He does great work.

Speaking of knotty -- anyone seen or heard from him lately? I just realized I haven't, at least not here.

[Sabreman]

The pelican hooks are dead. They're also inherently the weakest point in the rig so it's a no brainer. Replace everything including turnbuckles. Go with uncoated wire. In your photos, who ever did them, did a bad job - the vinyl never goes all the way the the swage - there should be a 1/8" gap. Do not do it yourself - this is an area where you should not try to save money.

I used riggingonly.com. They're great and fairly priced. Send them old ones and a week or two later shiny new ones will arrive.

[jrd22]

I'll second Knothead. He did ours and the price was extremely reasonable and top quality.
I sent him the old ones in a flat rate postal box and a week later I had the new ones. They fit perfectly.

[miatapaul]

You have basically 3 options:

• Get new ones made up with either coated or un-coated, you cannot reuse swage fittings. No way to swage fittings yourself unless you have a very expensive machine, even then I would not do it.

• Get a kit that uses swageless fittings, coated or un-coated, likely a bit more than above but the fittings are reusable so you will save money when you replace the wire in 20 years. But will you own the boat that long?

• Use Dyneema to make your own, cheapest, don't last nearly as long, but fittings can be reused when the Dyneema needs to be replaced. Stays cheapest, and lots of people like the softer feel of the Dyneema and it is lighter if that is important to you.

[MarkSF]

Well I just checked my quote for the lifelines (31ft boat, double lifelines, in 3/16" 316 stainless wire, 2 gates, all new fittings including the gates) - it was about $650 for materials and 4 hours (approx) labour. That's with a rigger doing everything, including removal and installation - sounded very reasonable to me.

[miatapaul]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

Well I just checked my quote for the lifelines (31ft boat, double lifelines, in 3/16" 316 stainless wire, 2 gates, all new fittings including the gates) - it was about $650 for materials and 4 hours (approx) labour. That's with a rigger doing everything, including removal and installation - sounded very reasonable to me.

that sounds very reasonable, much less than I have seen in my research on boat purchase. The Suncor swageless setup is 260, to 320 a line.

[ltgoshen]

went to west marine today. They want me to send the lifelines to their rigger in RockHil,SC. West marine rigging 860 Marlin Drive. He said he can build them in 3/16 stainless steel with new pelican hooks and a turnbuckle. Keep in mind there is no step through .He said maybe $100.00 cheaper if we use my old pelican hooks. only problem, He sail 2 weeks to get back. Or I could measure mine and he could build and have the deliver ups in 3 to for days. So Around 400 completed with shipping. The older I get the cheaper I get. ..

[Stumble]

I would highly recommend going to dyneema. Figure $200 and some splices.