Critical Maritime Product Discussion

Two little doggies live on my sailboat with me, and I love them dearly!  In addition to flotation vests, that they wear whenever we are underway, I installed lifeline netting to help keep them onboard.  Lashing it to the lifeline and stantions was easy enough, but making it easy to connect it across the boarding gates took some creativity. I cut the edge piece shown from a sheet of 1/4 King Starboard (HDPE.)  I drilled holes along the edge to lash the net to, and added a snap shackle with D ring for the bottom closure.  It's wider at the top to support two lash points to the usual lifeline connector. Without the edge piece it needed a second snap shackle in the middle to prevent a gap, and it also tended to get tangled/twisted very easily.  The edge piece made using it much easier, avoided dangerous gaps, and halved the supporting hardware requirements.   It has been in place for 18 months, working flawlessly, still going strong!  

Before I start I want to mention that yes, I am aware of Blue Sea's ACR products.  Installing involves a fair bit of rewiring on my older boat, and I was more comfortable with something that was more like the traditional Perko rotating bank selection scheme (to the point they can exist in parallel, leaving the Perko as a backup.)   Rewiring to isolate the start circuit from the rest probably has some advantages... maybe next project.  The same isolation is not precluded by the scheme I went with, though automating it either way requires a little bit more... that was part of my plan anyway. Another objection, the ACR is activated by sensing voltage drop on the house bank, which means the starter load is drawn from the house bank, if only for a split second. I don't see the point of using an indirect signal like that, when a very direct one is readily available: the start wire of the key switch. As the title suggests the heart of this plan is the Blue Sea ML Series 77...