Hello; this is my first post. Apologies if I am slow on the posting etiquette.

I need new lifelines; Svendson's quotes $1.5k just for the hardware/lines (I install). At that price, I'd like to get it right, not end up doing it twice.

I hear that bare wire is required for the SHTP (to which I someday aspire). I also hear bare wire eats your sails / is a chafe issue, and is generally a bummer on the skin.

Is it possible to get coated wire, and then, on that glorious day one does some SSS offshore thing requiring bare wire, one goes around with a knife and removes the vinyl? Or is there some other way to avoid chafe (I thought of just using PVC tubes, but don't want to reach to grab a lifeline and have my hand roll...)

I did search the threads, but the last post is 2+ years ago, and regulations seem to keep changing. I would tend to prefer (coated) wire to spectra/HMPE just since it seems like I'd need to inspect it/deal with it less. But not if I then can never race with it without dumping another couple of $k.

Advice/current requirements would be appreciated.

Most recent related post:
https://www.sfbaysss.org/forum/showt...ight=lifelines

Boat: Ericson 34-2, which I am slowly getting set up.