New life lines

[K2MSmith]

How much should I expect to pay for new stainless wire lifelines and fittings for an Ericson 33 ? I’m thinking of taking them off myself and bringing them to a shop rather than have a rigger come to the dock .

 

[reginaldobaker]

Shooting from the hip here but think under $500 total is possible and reasonable. If they're double lifelines on either side that might be roughly 150' of wire (~35' * 2 * 2).

Sailrite and Westmarine price out 5/32" o.d. 7x7 coated wire at about $60/50', new hardware and fittings might be roughly the same cost as the wire.

 

[william.haas]

Here's the estimate from my rigger. This is from two weeks ago... Note that redoing my outhaul is also included in that quote.

 

[Slick470]

We replaced ours about five years ago. The best price we found was through Rigging Only. Ended up sending them our old ones to copy, so that added a bit of cost, but overall it was in the $750 ballpark for our 30 footer with me taking the old ones off and installing the new ones. Also, went to the newer style over center pelican hooks.

 

[Loren Beach]

Whether you re-rig with uncoated wire or coated, Be SURE to change to the vastly-superior pelican hooks from: https://csjohnson.com/marine-catalog/
Attached is a page from their on line catalog.

 

[Marlin Prowell]

Fisheries Supply in Seattle has a cable shop. In February of this year I called them and talked with the person who builds lifelines. I sent them my old life lines and they made replacements using the old lifelines as a guide. I chose uncoated 3/16” 1x19 wire and all C.S.Johnson hardware. The replacement lifelines fit perfectly.

20 machine swages	$270
108’ 3/16” wire	$160
18 assorted hardware fittings	$596
Shipping	$66
Total	$1092

 

[G Kiba]

1 to 1.6 boat dollars. What a deal. No wonder I see so much dyneema used. Oh well, I am still getting use to "today's" prices I guess.

 

[driftless]

Took mine off and took them to my local West Marine. They sent them off to one of their rigging shops and I picked the new ones back up a few weeks later. $1,018.92. Double lifelines for a 38', uncoated 3/16", all new hardware. 2020 prices.
Don't really see what the beef is with "old style" pelican hooks

 

[Loren Beach]

Don't really see what the beef is with "old style" pelican hooks

The Ericson-installed ones on our '88 boat were really difficult to close and open. Hard on the hands and just a "primitive" design compared to the CSJohnson design, i.e. a new generation. I do not know of any riggers that would prefer the old stuff. Also, the "over center" closure design in the later ones reduces a tendency to fly open even when the closure is not latched. It's a safer design; keeping mind that it will always be safest to tape 'em shut for some conditions.

 

[bsangs]

Bought new upper and lower lifelines last March from West Marine rigging. Replaced the vinyl coated lifelines with 316 uncoated stainless steel, new studs, modern pelican hooks, gate eyes and turnbuckles. All machine swaged by West Marine. Cost $1,230. Did the install myself, which was pretty painless. Just be sure to measure accurately.

 

[bgary]

Here's the estimate from my rigger. This is from two weeks ago... Note that redoing my outhaul is also included in that quote.

Holy cow, I need to dig my (80s-vintage) swaging machine out of the garage. 20 bucks per swage?!?! Sheesh. I used to just consider swaging to be part of the labor-charge, not its own line-item...

 

[peaman]

32-3 fitted with new uncoated 1x19 316 stainless one year ago for $1,400.

 

[Nick J]

I went the Dyneema route on my 25+ (https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/new-lifelines.358/). I think it was under $400 at the time. They worked great and were really comfortable on the hand and legs. The biggest benefit to me was the ability to install and maintain myself without having to rely on expensive tools. I'm not sure if I'm going to go steel or dyneema on the new boat. Bare steel look great too.

 

[KS Dave]

My DIY lifeline project came in under $850 for big beefy stainless steel fittings and uncoated stainless wire. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and it was pretty easy to assemble.

 

[JSM]

A few years back I was considering new life lines to replace the originals on our 87 34-2 as the coating was yellowed and cracked. In the process of deciding between coated and un coated I stripped all of the coating off of the existing lines to see how the boat would look with bare stainless.
Turned out it looked pretty good. The original lines and hardware showed no signs of rust or wear ( fresh water boat ) so I left everything in place.

 

[KS Dave]

A few years back I was considering new life lines to replace the originals on our 87 34-2 as the coating was yellowed and cracked. In the process of deciding between coated and un coated I stripped all of the coating off of the existing lines to see how the boat would look with bare stainless.
Turned out it looked pretty good. The original lines and hardware showed no signs of rust or wear ( fresh water boat ) so I left everything in place.

I agree, it's a great option and that's how I started my journey. As it turns out, my turnbuckles were all frozen up and I could not adjust them or fully remove the lines. They started shearing apart when I applied heat + force to get them apart.