Bosun’s chair recommendations?

[thinwater]

A non-inflatable PFD (waterski-type) for both mast work and MOB recovery. In the first case it is for rib protection off shore. In the second, rib protection and because you can't function in an inflatable PFD. This should make why clear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPmNo-jo4tg

 

[Kukri]

A non-inflatable PFD (waterski-type) for both mast work and MOB recovery. In the first case it is for rib protection off shore. In the second, rib protection and because you can't function in an inflatable PFD. This should make why clear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPmNo-jo4tg

Two nations divided by a common language. I think you mean what we call a buoyancy aid, as worn when sailing dinghies?

 

[thinwater]

Two nations divided by a common language. I think you mean what we call a buoyancy aid, as worn when sailing dinghies?

In the US PFDs (personal flotation devices) come in five categories. Type III are what you call buoyancy aids. Type IV are inflatables. Each catagory has specific requirements, related to EN standards, but different.

Finally, and EN certified devise will NOT get you past the USCG, which requires devices be USCG certified. They should harmonize the two, which are not really very different. I believe the USCG system may be older, at least in it's current form. In parctice, I seriously doubt a quality En-only devise would ever get written up; they just want you to have some thing and use it.

The non-sailor calls them life jackets, not understanding there are formally different categories.

This is more a case of being separated by different bureaucracies!

https://www.boatus.org/life-jackets/types/

 

[prv]

In the US PFDs (personal flotation devices) come in five categories. Type III are what you call buoyancy aids. Type IV are inflatables. Each catagory has specific requirements, related to EN standards, but different.

https://www.boatus.org/life-jackets/types/

Um, according to that link there are nine types with rather confusing names, that don’t seem to go up in any logical order, and Type IV is a seat cushion...

Pete

 

[thinwater]

Um, according to that link there are nine types with rather confusing names, that don’t seem to go up in any logical order, and Type IV is a seat cushion...

Pete

Yup, confusing until you get used to it. Cushions, rings, and Lifesling are type IV, my bad. Type V is inflatable. Also, type V only counts if you are wearing it.

 

[Kukri]

Does anyone know why the Harken bosun’s chair costs more Pounds here than Dollars in the States? It looks similar to others but it must be made of pure Unobtanium

 

[thinwater]

Does anyone know why the Harken bosun’s chair costs more Pounds here than Dollars in the States? It looks similar to others but it must be made of pure Unobtanium

It's priced stupid here.

Just get a Petzel big wall harness. Same thing, but better. Harken just puts their name on it.

 

[Graham_Wright]

If you are preparing for long passages a helmet is an essential bit of kit (for mast work offshore) and is also useful if you need to go over the side to help recover a comatose MOB. I would not do mast work at sea without a helmet (they are cheap as chips and certainly cheaper than skulls!) Normal hard hats are a pain, they have a peak/visor at the front and you need to bend your neck way back to see up high - cut the peak off, or buy a dedicated climbing helmet and if all else fails - a cycle helmet

Jonathan

I don't see the point of a hard hat at height. I can't see the benefit of a cycle helmet either - they are full of slots!

 

[Kukri]

Just to say that, after much deliberation, I bought a Harken bosun’s chair and a Spinlock harness.

Not least because Harken themselves tell you to wear a harness on a separate halyard whilst using the chair.

The Harken chair is surreally expensive but absolutely excellent in every respect except one. It is wonderfully comfortable, the halyard attachment points are low, so you can get to the masthead, and I have every confidence in its strength, but I wish it had a stainless steel, life jacket/harness type, buckle rather than the plastic one. I might fit one from a retired life jacket. Like all Harken products that I can think of, it comes with a long Instruction Book, written in a way that Bears of Little Brain can understand, in grammatical demotic English. And I don’t doubt that if I wanted instructions in another language, Harken would supply them.

The Spinlock harness is not comfortable, but I’m sure it is safe. To my huge annoyance, Spinlock have taken the cop out route and supplied a set of drawings with no words, but bespattered with skulls and crosses, no doubt thinking that anyone on the planet could understand them. Well, I am still struggling with them...

 

[LittleSister]

My bosun's chair recommendation is to get someone else to go up in it!

 

[BelleSerene]

As a slight aside

Clipper yachts carry 2 helmets (on each yacht) for use during mast work and for MOB recovery. I don't know that they are climbing helmets, they may be caving helmets (I don't know the latter and I'm not up to date with the former).

Jonathan

If they store all their navigators on the 'off' watch while approaching land, I wonder if they store their climbing helmets at the masthead?

 

[BelleSerene]

My bosun's chair recommendation is to get someone else to go up in it!

My initial response to the thread was 'rent a boy', but I feared I might be misunderstood.

[Edit:] Especially, I suppose, if I'd added the other part of the thought, which was to do the grinding oneself.

 

[Kukri]

Anyway I bought the outrageously expensive Harken bosun’s chair. It has one supreme virtue- it’s really comfortable.