Just a thought about uncovered (bare wire) lifelines - we've made lots of lifelines out of bare 1x19 and bare 7x19 ss wire at customer's requests - and a very common complaint that we recieve back, after we have warned them of this - is that the bare wire is very unkind to leg hair, arm hair, head hair, wool sweaters, and clothing in general. This sounds very silly, but it is something you should think about. If you sail in shorts and have hair on your legs, it will get caught in the lifelines and it is Painful! Everyone laughs when we give them this warning, but they do not laugh when their leg hair is pulled out by the lifelines.