Safety Rail History
- Thread starter ISFISSY
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1...follow the money/ they cost less to make and cheaper to install
2...pelican hook gates are easyer to use
3...they actually look better than the tubing rails
4...they dont have to be polished near as much
i am sure there are other reasons that others will contribute ...
regrds
woody
Boats flex in the vertical plane so solid life lines would be constantly bending and breaking at the stanchions.
Cost and weight. In my 51'I went for 1"ss tubing all the way around. The gates were made of 1/4" ss chain with pelican hooks welded to them. Even the inside teak hand rail was changed for ss tubing about 10" high. It made life safer in the open seas having hand rails on both sides while going forward. The French Maramus are also equipped the same way. In some boats, you have to remove everything when trailering because of low bridges. If racing, you want wire because it can be adjusted to allow hiking farther out. But mostly, cost. It only takes about 1 hour to polish all of it and I think it looks nicer. Tubing can bend and then it looks bad.
My rails have been on for 12 years, 2 hurricanes and trips up and down Trinidad to Maine to Guatemala and back to St. Croix. They are bolted to the pulpits, not welded and because of the gates, they are not one solid long piece. Also got sideswipe by a couple of boats that broke loose and no damage, no breaks.
Some other reasons:
Less wind resistance; a clearer path for water to wash off of the boat when the decks get wet in big seas; although not the ideal jackline, they can serve as such in a pinch without the resistance of large diameter tubing; if you race your boat (and you haven't removed them) it's easier for your crew to stay on the high side; the flexibility of the cable is more conducive to the curve of a sailboat as opposed to the straighter line of a powerboat. There's probably a million more reasons why they are more prevalent on sailboats and why they were originally chosen!
Less wind resistance; a clearer path for water to wash off of the boat when the decks get wet in big seas; although not the ideal jackline, they can serve as such in a pinch without the resistance of large diameter tubing; if you race your boat (and you haven't removed them) it's easier for your crew to stay on the high side; the flexibility of the cable is more conducive to the curve of a sailboat as opposed to the straighter line of a powerboat. There's probably a million more reasons why they are more prevalent on sailboats and why they were originally chosen!
Solid rails
I have always wanted solid tubing rails. I saw a boat with them, and it was absolutely magnificent! It was a beautifully proportioned pilot house sloop, and the rails were beautifully made.
The reason, I think, is money. It would be enormously more expensive to do, especially on-site, i.e., not in a manufacturing environment. And it requires a highly skilled person lots of time to do. In addition, I'm told welding on a fiberglass boat is risky, because of the risk of fire.
One would have to fabricate or find fittings, hinges, etc. And the design work would not be trivial.
Fitting wire rope lifelines is, in comparison, cheap and trivial to do.
I have always wanted solid tubing rails. I saw a boat with them, and it was absolutely magnificent! It was a beautifully proportioned pilot house sloop, and the rails were beautifully made.
The reason, I think, is money. It would be enormously more expensive to do, especially on-site, i.e., not in a manufacturing environment. And it requires a highly skilled person lots of time to do. In addition, I'm told welding on a fiberglass boat is risky, because of the risk of fire.
One would have to fabricate or find fittings, hinges, etc. And the design work would not be trivial.
Fitting wire rope lifelines is, in comparison, cheap and trivial to do.
Just curious about a couple of your points:
I would think the wind resistance of 1" stainless tubing v. even 5/16" cable is negligible
I don't understand that; how could a tubing railing impede water washing off decks?
This doesn't compute, as the rail would be bent, regardless of the type of boat it's going on.
What do you mean by "originally chosen?"
How do you attach tubing to the boat so that it can take a 250# sailor slamming against it after losing a handhold? My understanding is that lifelines are like a trampoline. The security comes from the stretch between the solid pushpit and pulpit. The stanchions simply hold the lifelines at the appropriate height. I have fallen hard against the lifelines and just sprung back. At the very least a stainless rail would have bent.
The rails or lifelines on a boat would never under any condition meet the most basic requirements for building safety. Sometimes they are more of a hazard than a help. Handholds along the inboard length of the deck would probably be better on some boats
Given the thickness and heigth of the lifelines a flexible one is safer as it may allow a person to maintain his balance better than if the rail was solid. I know that if them lifelines had no give, I would have been over them and into the water in many occassions.
lifelines werent made for holding folks into boat-- they just tell you where the edge is before you fall in. they fail before they can do any saving. if you fall against a stanchion hard, you will not only hurt self badly, you will bend stanchion/.
There was no scientific/engineering basis for any of them...just some things I found when looking up "lifelines on sailboats" since my curiosity was piqued with the original question. I probably should have said that at the beginning of the reply!
I was reminded of this post whilst driving to my boat yesterday. Several miles of the interstate system have changed the median barrier to sailboat-like lifelines(see my #9 reply above). The "stanchions" are not very tall and certainly won't stop anything. The answer is in their anchor points, tons of buried concrete. There is lots of give when a car hits those cables. I guess I could Google the testing data if I had more time.
The cost of the materials to replace the aging safety rail on my 94 36' Hunter was about $950. The professionally installed and tig welded 1" SS heavy wall tube railing was $2400, and it is a thing of beauty. The top and mid rails are continuous from fore pulpit railing to aft railing configuration. Holes were drilled in the bottom of the top rail and fit snugly over the stancion tops resulting in a smooth continuous top rail. It is a stronger integral system than the wire rail and suits my needs for cruising.
This is just my personal view. Cable allows easy attachment of safety harness tethers with the stantions only holding the cable at a convenient height. More of a last chance than a funtional apparatus. Think single handed, night or heavy weather sailing where separation from the boat is a highly probable fatality.
The major benefit of the SS Rail all way round is it has been bonded/designed along with the mast as the boats lightening ground grid protection system.
this boat was built 108 yrs ago without lifelines....
https://www.facebook.com/groups/185620514796826/
her name is eleanor. we learned to sail sans lifelines from age7. eleanor is 36 ft length of deck.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/185620514796826/
her name is eleanor. we learned to sail sans lifelines from age7. eleanor is 36 ft length of deck.
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