A frayed knot
Hi there,
If anything, taking the end of the lanyard to the rail would lessen the effects of shock loads: the strain would be distributed more evenly among the lanyard legs; and the entire load would not land on the deadeye chainplate, so the load would also be distributed better on the hull. For that matter, tuning the rig so that the leeward lanyards don't go dead slack would also be a boon.
As for those seizings, they do nothing at all to "get that "extra" tension and spring out of [the lanyards]"; the seizings are there to provide redundancy, so that if any leg of the lanyard fails, the whole won't pull out. This is exactly the kind of thing that tends to get lost as traditional arts get passed on. The logic that gave rise to the structure is forgotten or distorted, so the form that remains is vulnerable to mistaken assumptions. Even someone as deeply experienced as yourself can be tricked by this data vacuum. The only thing for it is to keep thinking, keep that original logic alive.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss
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