Brent,

Thanks for the comments on the lifelines on Augustine.

The concept came from a photo in Dan Spurr's "Boat Book" credited to Frank Mulville, who used a length of wire on each side run between pad eyes at the stem and stern and seized to the upper shroud at waist level on his Hillyard cutter "Iskra".

I used U bolts and eye bolts secured to a home-made pin rail instead of seizing the line to the upper shroud, added a lower line secured to the upper shroud at the pivot point for the tabernacle rig that I use to raise and lower my mast. Also, I began the forward section of both the upper and lower lifelines just forward of my boarding step beside the cockpit, and the aft section just aft of that boarding step to prevent having to rig a gate. I also used Dacron line rather than wire.

The downsides of this system are that Dacron line has more stretch than does wire, there is an unprotected section at the boarding step, and the lack of stanchions means a longer run between supporting hardware, and therefore a more springy and flexible system than one would expect from conventional lifelines.

But if one compares it to what I had, which was a boat totally without lifelines or stanchions, but with a set of installed trough-bolted pad eyes for jack lines, it is quite an improvement. You have something to hold onto, something onto which to grab if you find yourself falling or sliding towards thee rail, and the lines might just keep you onboard. I still recommend the use of this system with jack lines, particularly when sailing alone or at night. This would also be my recommendation in any case even with conventional lifelines, which on small vessels tend to come to the approximate height of the knee, and offer little support. My jack lines attach to the pad eyes at the bow that are used by the lifelines. These pad eyes were originally installed by a previous owner for jack line purposes.

One could use, and I sometimes do use my lifelines as attachment points for a harness tether. The line strength and securement system is strong enough, and in my opinion better than stock lifeline-stanchion systems. There are three drawbacks, two of which are also the case with stock lifelines

1. The lifelines are more or less above the rail and therefore far outboard of my jack line system. There is therefore more chance that of your tether is the factor that arrests your fall, you will already be overboard when the tether stretches tight. This is also true of stock lifelines,

2. You must attach and detach when going forward to the bow, since you tether will not slide past the pin rail. This is the case at every stanchion on a stock lifeline system.

3. This Dacron line system is pretty springy, and the stretch of the line would just add to the distance that you would fall overboard before your tether is pulled tight.

So in conclusion, if you do install such a system, by all means buy a nice set of jack lines and install them also. They offer you a much better chance of staying onboard than clipping you harness to any lifeline, and you will not need to unclip to go forward to the bow.

The best part of my system is that all lines are secured at multiple points to through bolted hardware with backing plates, and that the height of the line is greatest at the location of the mast where the pine rail and the upper lifeline is at the level of my lower back, so that I feels quite comfortable leaning against the pin rail while working at the base of the mast raising halyards etc.

Also the lines do not have to be slackened to permit lowering or raising of the mast. The section of the lower lifeline running forward from the boarding step to the upper shroud also doubles as a bridle for the tabernacle rig.

As to the running lights, I am always looking for ways to reduce use of the house battery. Also, running wires to the pin rails from the house DC system would not be my preferred option. I originally envisioned kerosene red and green lamps on the pin rails to be used on longer trips, but the price and size of those lamps has dissuaded me from further pursuing that course.

I am currently thinking about adapting some of those clamp-on red and green flashlight type lights with solar-rechargeable batteries. Again they would openly be necessary on longer trips. I am running with an OB Motor sans alternator. It would be a major coup to be able to directly adapt dome solar lights for this function, but I am not sure that solar lights would be visible at the requisite distance. You can buy solar lamps these days for Garden purposes that stay on all night, have rechargeable AA Batteries included in a very small unit, and cost only about $20.00 each. Someone could I suppose adapt such devices to navigation lights. At least solar lamps could be used as handy all-weather anchor lamps, if not for running lights.

As to the pin rails, I made them from local lumber yard teak. They were made in two main parts and bolted around the two lower shrouds. Two additional short pieces were then screwed to the ends of the two main pieces. Slots were cut to accommodate the shroud wire, but a tad bit smaller so that the device more or less clamps to the shrouds. The pin rails have a raised section at the aft end to better serve as a shield for the possible future addition of navigation lights.