First guardrail splice
So I have made our first Mobius Locking Brummel splice, with thimble, for our guardrails.
This is in 6mm Hampidjan Dynice Dux from Jimmy Green Marine.
This will be used with a lashing to tension the guardrail. This bit of line will lead to the gate which has "pelican" hook into another thimble. Something like this:
Mostly following this blog post from Rigging Doctor.
Our latch doesn't include a screw thread to tension the gate so I think we will need to have a separate lashing to tension the gate.
However, we do have a big decision to make about our stanchions. The gates, in particular, are all a bit bent and the diagonal support braces are clearly moving where they are bolted through the deck - obviously a likely source of leaks. Also the stanchion tops, through which the lines pass, have some UV damage.
As we are already replacing the aft most stanchion with the supports for the solar panels using the Tula's Endless Summer method the question is whether we can afford to replace them all now (well after we fit the chainplate ply backing plates all the way along).
If we do replace the stanchions then I would do so with longer ones for better security (700+mm compared to 600+mm) and with 3 lines instead of 2.
At the bow, we would refit the pulpit onto pads for better waterproofing, but the guardrail lines would slope slightly down to it.
At the stern we have a couple of options. One possibility is that what we build for the aft solar panels replaces the pushpit and so would match the new height. Otherwise a slope similar to the bow will be mostly hidden behind the side solar panels.
No instant decision needed. We can sort the supports for the side solar panels which replace one stanchion per side and see how that goes. That can inform our decision about the other stanchions and the pushpit.
