Going up the mast the wrong way

Badger

Badger

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Is anyone else apart from me alarmed at the growing trend I see for parents to hoist bored children up to the top of the mast in a bosun's chair with nothing else holding them but the snap shackle on the main halyard. In fact in the Waiting for the tide section of PBO June Edition is a picture of one poor innocent in the mystery photo competition where Sarah Norbury is offering a pair of Dubarry's if you can name her. Try Hasler Naval Hospital. Why does nobody know the right way to rig a bosuns chair anymore. Answers on a postcard please.(Yes of cousre I know because 2 out of 3 failed on my once)

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That is almost criminally dangerous! A bowline or a proper fig of 8 is a must ... and I'd only ever go up with a safety one as well!

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Re: Hah !

Thats nothing.
Anchored in Porth Caried on Saturday to have lunch when 2 PWC's come racing thro' the anchorage at over 30 knts.
Can't really blame the drivers/pilots though..... they were only about 10 years old !


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A case for the Darwin Awards...

if a snap shackle killed a WWF "wrestler", whose estate is apparently suing Lewmar (!) it will probably kill the child too.

Mind you, should such parental genes be allowed to reproduce....?

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When I worked at Westerley Sea School were were up and down masts all bloody day I would use main halyard, take a bight of the rope and tie a bowline through the rings on the boasuns chair, then bowline in the topping lift around the chest under the arms.

<hr width=100% size=1>Sod the Healey - I think I'll buy an E-Type.
 
Hands up

Once did this in a sailing dinghy. Kid up mast in Bosun's chair. Heel the boat. Weight takes over. Boat capsizes. Loud splash from masthead. Follwed by shrieks, howls, gales of laughter. Sunsail dinghy, Greece, at the suggestion of the boys in the rescue boats. The other game, how many people sink a Topper. That's fun, but even more fun is the way the Topper surfaces like a missile when you all fall off once it has sunk.

PS it was flat calm and no good for sailing.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>
 
Seems to me your alarm is wholly justified. A snap shackle alone, apart from the risk of failure, can be easily released with a little tug.

But, if you see it being done wrong, why not step in and suggest how it can and should be done more safely. Provided you're tactful about it, most parents will welcome the advice. There's nothing inherently wrong, I think, in sending a child up the mast, provided it's done safely.



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