Attaching lifelines......

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LeonF

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After the tragic story of the singe hander who lost his life while attached to his boat...I just wondered how many of us can tell a tale of being saved from going overboard by being attached....or went overboard and were saved by not being so ???
Personally I always find it a bity of an encumbrance if having to go forward to hook on the reefing horn or some other task.. always feel I am more likely to get tangled or trip up. I have hooked on when alone while helming, but cannot say I have ever done so when leaving the cockpit except on my Dayskipper course. On the bank holidy in Mid Thames was caught in a really nasty squall, and with an inexperienced crew we donned life jackets, and I did wear the lifeline, but did not clip on when I went forward. In some ways I reckoned if I had gone overboard it would have been worse with me dragging alongside the boat. Just curious to see what others do...
 
Knew someone who got dragged behind/under a sailing boat racing. She was ok in the end but it was a bit of a shock. Single handed would have been a problem in her circumstances as she needed the others to stop the boat to allow her to come up.
Really need to keep the strop short or attach where you will not actually go over. I usually attach on the mast if things are so bouncy I need to, but generally, like you, find it too much of an incumbance.
The exceptions to this on my boat are night sailing, especially with a crew.
 
There are recommended guidelines issued in the RORC Safety instructions.

Extract:

5.02 Safety Harness and Safety Lines (Tethers)
5.02.1 each crew member shall have a harness and safety line that complies with EN 1095 (ISO12401) or equivalent with a safety line not more than 2m in length

a) Warning it is possible for a plain snaphook to disengage from a U-bolt if the hook is rotated under load at right-angles to the axis of the U-bolt. For this reason the use of snaphooks with positive locking devices is strongly recommended

5.02.2 At least 30% of the crew shall each, in addition to the above be provided with either:-

a) a safety line not more than 1m long, or


b) a mid-point snaphook on a 2m safety line

c) Each yacht shall carry spare harness and safety line units as required in 5.02.1 above sufficient for at least 10% of the total number of persons on board (minimum one unit).

5.02.3 A safety line purchased in 1/01 or later shall have a coloured flag embedded in the stitching, to indicate an overload. A line which has been overloaded shall be replaced as a matter of urgency.

5.02.4 A crew member's lifejacket and harness shall be compatible

5.02.5 The RORC requires that: -

a) a harness and safety line should comply with EN 1095 (ISO 12401) or near equivalent

It is strongly recommended that:-

b) static safety lines should be securely fastened at work stations;

The RORC requires that: -

c) a harness shall be fitted with a crotch strap or thigh straps;

It is strongly recommended that:-

d) to draw attention to wear and damage, stitching on harness and safety lines should be of a colour contrasting strongly with the surrounding material;


e) snaphooks should be of a type which will not self-release from a U-bolt (see OSR 5.02.1(a)) and which can be easily released under load (crew members are reminded that a personal knife may free them from a safety line in emergency);


f) a crew member before a race should adjust a harness to fit then retain that harness for the duration of the race.

5.02.6 Warning - a safety harness is not designed to tow a person in the water and it is important that a harness is used to minimise or eliminate the risk of a person's torso becoming immersed in water outside the boat. The diligent use of a properly adjusted safety harness is regarded as by far the most effective way of preventing man overboard incidents. **


Now personally, that makes sense to me, and that is how we are now configured.
 
I appreciate your post, but not many of us race or conform to these guidelines. I carry sufficient lifejackets and lines for everyone on board, although many now bring their own, but I do not carry harnesses. I was curious to know what people did in practice rather than what was the 'letter of the law'. I know I should hook on, but instinctively feel that there at times when it is more of an encumbrance, and is more likely to result in my taking a swim. When doing my Dayskipper with one of the major schools in the Hamble, I was surprised to be told that they carried harnesses but NOT lifejackets.
 
The idea of a harness is to stop you going in the water, which is always better than being in it. Therefore the combination of tether and hooking point should keep you on deck if you fall, not tow you alongside or behind the boat. Choose where you hook carefully - almost always the high side or centre line will be best.

As for feeling safer without a harness, I think that might just come down to practise. The more often you hook on, the more used you get to moving about the boat while tethered and the easier it becomes.
 
Well the important bit there is safety line not more than 1m long.
This should prevent you from being fully immersed if you go over, and stop you hopefully at a point where you might be able to lever yourself back into the boat.
Also its important to have the Jackstays on the boat reasonably well tensioned so that they dont stretch over the lifelines.
It should be about preventing you from reaching the point of no self recovery.

I agree we cant all mett Cat 0 Ocean racing regs, but we can embody the spirit of them for at least the amount of crew you normally carry.
We did me & SWMBO, then a couple of months later (or ebay opportunities!) we did another one, and so on.
We now have 7 of everything, so a spare jacket, harness, lifeline, gas canister etc.

You can start by measuring your safety lines and take them to your sailmaker to alter if necessary to Standard EN 1095. Thats not too expensive.
 
If you are singlehanded and you fall in without a lifeline and the boat sails on without you, you are probably going to die. If you go in with a lifeline attached you at least have some chance of getting back on board. Personally I'd rather clip on and have that chance, however slight.

However, it is very easy to get careless. A few years ago I found myself alone one night on the afterdeck of a yacht in mid-Atlantic. Everone else was asleep and I had forgotten to clip on when leaving the cockpit to adjust the windvane. The thought that if I had gone in, no one would know until many hours later made me a lot more careful thereafter!
 
I pretty well always clip on when I'm on my own. Slipping overboard takes a matter of seconds, and only has to be done once. Even on a calm day, your boat can sail off faster than you can swim.

In contrast, I think a lifejacket is pretty useless if you're on your own, or it's night, or there are big waves, as the chances of being found are slim.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Warning it is possible for a plain snaphook to disengage from a U-bolt if the hook is rotated under load at right-angles to the axis of the U-bolt. For this reason the use of snaphooks with positive locking devices is strongly recommended

5.02.2 At least 30% of the crew shall each, in addition to the above be provided with either:-

a) a safety line not more than 1m long, or


b) a mid-point snaphook on a 2m safety line

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting.

Our boat has no U-bolts. It has jackstays on the sidedecks, and short jackstays in the cockpit. While I have no objection to using positive-locking hooks, I find that the Gibb Hook seems to be cut from sheet metal with sharp edges, and is reluctant to run on webbing stays. I have some older snap hooks, not locking, which run much more freely. I find that the Gibb hook gives a minor trip hazard which doesn't happen with the older hooks. Why should I have to use a locking hook when the U-bolt hazard doesn't exist?

My safety line is a three metre, three-hook line, divided into two metre and one metre sections. I move along the side deck using the two metre section, get to the mast, then put the one metre section round the mast and hook it back to my harness. That way I'm always attached, and when working at the mast I'm held to about 30 cm (alright, a foot or so) from the mast. How would I use a two metre line with a centre hook?
 
Having spent 20 plus years working in the construction industry it is obvious that the type of harnesses sold to yachtsmen are purely designed for fall restraint and not fall arrest. IE the lanyard must be short enough to stop the harness taking the shock load of someone falling overboard.
From my personal experience I will always use the tightest best fitting harness available with the shortest lanyard I can work with.If you go over the rail with a badly fitting harness then there is a good chance you'll be dead before you hit the water!
By the way I don't mean to be a pessimist but a 3 foot fall will kill you if you don't wear the right gear or wear the right gear incorrectly.
 
Always clip on when alone on watch when leaving the cockpit, day or night. If you go over when crew is snoring you are dead really. Even in a flat calm.

Jackstays go down the centre of coach roof at full stretch, elastic lifelines, you can reach the guard wires. It is actually difficult to reach the forestay currently, that is on my jobs to do.

Always wear life-jackets when alone on watch so adding lifelines is not a problem. I am not sure how long I could tread water now so may start wearing a life-jacket more often even when all awake. Always wear jackets in the tender, it is not really a hassle. If I was more confident with swimming it would be a different answer maybe, but I don't want to die yet!
 
I only rarely use a lifeline even in heavy conditions (we always have jackstays rigged if outside of sheltered waters though), but we have a largish boat with smooth motion and a flush deck which I am not too proud to crawl along and a deep cockpit. If standing at the mast it is very difficult to go over the side as 3 sets of shrouds each side. Have golden rule that no one goes on deck without another in the cockpit whenever the boat is not at anchor.

In another boat could be different. A friend of mine was washed out the back of a transomless race boat by a wave while offshore - they were doing 15-16 knots and he considered himself fortunate that he was clipped on and the crew were able to stop the boat before he drowned from dragging.

Conversely I am quite familiar with one accident where not being clipped on could have saved the lives of a 2 man crew of a quite small yacht (under 30 foot). They were approaching a harbour entrance and only a little off land in quite steep seas and the skipper went over the side out of the cockpit and was dragged by his lifeline. The other crew member while trying to get him back on board then himself went over - the boat dragged both of them to their deaths whereas they probably would have otherwise survived.

I am not much of a fan of running polyester lifelines along the middle of the boat. As apart from limiting access to the boat and often meaning to go forward you have to clip onto a second run forward of the mast, in my experience they stretch so much that you will still go over the side. We have a 4 metre beam and if set up tight I can easily deflect the jackstays more than a metre over their approx 11 m length, especially once they are wet so would go over the side in any event - if one has only a short boat with no obstructions such as pilothouse, spray hood or similar then maybe different but the point is that the advice does not apply to all. It is also inadvisable to over tension them as the forces on them are then greatly increased when loaded.

John
 
I wonder whether the chances of survival for a single handed sailor would improve if the single handed sailor is wearing an inflatable life jacket without a harness line (assuming of course that the handheld radio was stil working and available).

I agree that a line is more likely to prevent you going over in the first place, but, if you actually do go over the side, there would be no-one to de-power the boat, and, I should think the lungs could quickly fill with water if you're being dragged along at 4-7 knots. One of these terrible situations where there may be no absolutely correct answer.
 
Just a thought, but are we assuming the dead single hander was on autopilot? I would have thought that even a well balanced boat would come up into the wind after a short time, but I'm not a "proper" sailor so this is more of a question than a statement.

I drive a motor boat but when single handing I do wear a lifejacket because the ladies in my life have asked me to. I also have a lifeline, but I have never used it yet. I choose fair weather for sailing and although the lifeboat is well set up for clipping on I think the rail height makes it unlikely I'd go overboard. Hope this isn't a case of famous last words!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Just a thought, but are we assuming the dead single hander was on autopilot? I would have thought that even a well balanced boat would come up into the wind after a short time...........

[/ QUOTE ]John, that's the exactly point of my concern as, if there's no-one else in the cockpit, I would usually connect the autohelm if I'm going to do deck work.

On the other hand, tacking into a good breeze, we can leave our tiller for perhaps up to ten minutes or more if the sails are well balanced. Never tried it with a body being dragged through the water though.
 
I have heard of systems which disconnect autopilot or windvane if load comes onto the jackstays. But I have never seen one in practice. It sounds sensible but I can't see how a reliable and robust system could be made.

Anyone any experience of this ?
 
I guess there is no perfect solution. My boat is stable and even for a 26 footer has very good side decks..I crawl forward in tough weather, and she is stable. I too have four bits of standing rigging on each side, and good bulwarks. At the moment not planning any Atlantic crossings, but in view of the tragic incident just reported, I was wondering what others may have experienced. I used to crew for a chap who had an HR36 that he often singlehanded, and he told me heading to Guernsey he was once washed off the deck, attached, then washed back on again. Personally I think there is no single answer, but to do what you feel comfortable with, though I always issue my crew with jackets and lines when the wind rises.
I recently went to a chat on east coast sailing by someone who writes for the mags, and was surprised to hear him say that he was concerned by the way wearing lifejackets was the norm. Asked to explain, he said that in his opinion this gave people a false sense of security, and lax hand holds..perhaps this could also apply to hooking on ??
Finally re-reading the blurb on the chap who drowned. I thought the coast guard could fix a position from a VHF call, which wa one of the reasons they preferred one to use a VHF rather than a mobile....or perhaps he just wasn't on long enough ?
 
A proximity linked DSC alert system would be a good solution, with automatic activation if a seperation between base station and transmitter 'dead man' exceeded say 20m, but would have to be reliable or the airwaves would be full of false alarms.
 
I've been thinking about this a bit recently as part of the learning curve of transfering from one hull to two. In Sweet Lucy we had a standing order that lifejackets and harnesses were worn as a matter of course after dark and we clipped on in the cockpit and on deck.

On Belladonna I have yet to make up my mind. On deck after dark, no problem; clip on at all times. In the cockpit, particularly in strong winds, I am not sure whether I would want to be clipped on if the boat turned over. Wear lifejacket and harness, yes, but clip on? possible not. Perhaps other cat cruisers could let us have their thoughts.

In passing, we have lifelines along the underside of the bridge deck for use after the event!
 
[ QUOTE ]
In passing, we have lifelines along the underside of the bridge deck for use after the event!

[/ QUOTE ]

I am planning to do this. Have they/you fitted wire or webbing? I am worried that webbing will rot quickly under the bridgedeck and attract a multitude of sea life.

Also how have they connected, do you have u-bolts through the bridgedeck or does the webbing wrap around the boat and attach to points on the deck. My fear with wrapping around is wear at the edges to the webbing and for u-bolts underneath is no good way to inspect the condition of the lines.

I am thinking stainless wire is the best way to go, but am not sure yet how to mount it, I do not have many 'strong' areas under the bridgedeck.

When she gets her antifoul this year I also have some fluorescent orange paint ready to paint underneath, do you think that would be enough or should I then paint a large SOS in black? (there is a tingling that says this is all tempting fate too!).

Your cat is much different with regards bridgedeck clearance, but I am sure many of my concerns were also relevant to whoever fitted yours.

Sorry if this is a little too PBO for here.
 
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