There is a liability issue to consider. If your life lines are professionally duplicated the company carries insurance and in the event of an accident with injuries their insurance would be involved. If one does it on their own I can image the line of questioning in a legal proceeding. "How many lifelines have you replaced? Where were you trained? Did you have your work inspected by a professional? Etc.
I don't like doing things to cover me from legal risk. But sometimes you have to consider risk management. In the book Atlantic High WFB details a legal case against him when someone drowned after falling off his boat due to lifeline failure. If I recall correctly the installer of the life line system ended up with the lump of coal.
I think there are several separate issues getting mixed together here.
First, having lifelines professionally fabricated doesn't somehow transfer all responsibility from the boat owner to the rigger. It may introduce another potentially responsible party if defective workmanship actually causes an accident, and the rigger may carry liability insurance, but that's quite different from saying the owner is protected because a professional did the work.
More importantly, whether a lifeline is structurally sound is fundamentally a question of design, materials and workmanship—not simply who held the crimping tool.
What wire was used? What is its breaking strength? What fittings and termination method were used? Were they installed correctly? What loads can the stanchions and their attachment points actually withstand? Was the finished installation properly inspected?
There's also an interesting problem with the William F. Buckley example. I went looking for the incident being referenced. It appears to be from Airborne, not Atlantic High. In 1971, Marvin Hayes fell from Buckley's yacht Cyrano after a lifeline he was sitting on failed. Buckley wasn't aboard. The reported problem was an incorrectly made termination by the rigger.
So the example being offered as a reason to have lifelines professionally fabricated is actually an example of a professionally fabricated lifeline failing because it was fabricated incorrectly.
But there's a much more fundamental issue here as it applies specifically to a Catalina 22:
The stock lifelines are only about knee high.
An adult standing or moving along the deck has his center of gravity well above them. The lifeline doesn't have to fail for the person to go overboard. It can remain completely intact and simply become the fulcrum over which he tumbles.
That's actually why SERENITY doesn't have lifelines.
For the way I use my boat, I consider knee-high lifelines more of a trip hazard and a potential false sense of security than something I want to depend upon to keep me aboard. That's my own risk-management decision; I'm certainly not suggesting everyone else has to make the same choice.
I'm a singlehanded sailor, so my priority is preventing the fall in the first place: good handholds, good nonskid, staying low when conditions warrant it, using a tether and appropriate attachment system when necessary, and arranging the boat so I don't have to make unnecessary trips onto the foredeck.
I would much rather consciously operate a boat knowing there is nothing between me and the water than unconsciously depend upon a knee-high wire to save me.
And there is one admittedly simple advantage to my system:
No lifelines = no lifeline problems.
