Helmets for solo sailers?

[Deleted member 36384]

What about your LJ? ....... When cycling?

A long time ago in Aberdeen a friend and I had just finished demolishing a house to clear the plot for new build. Lets say the HSE would not have been impressed when we hauled the lum down with a Jeep Wrangler.

Anyway, we left the plot and were driving out the village when we passed a man cutting his lawn on that fine summers evening. He was wearing, gloves, hard hat, face shield, ear defenders and safety boots. We both looked at one another, burst out laughing and simultaneously announced "safety officer".

I guess he at least walked the talk!

 

[john_morris_uk]

At lift out or lift in the YC always insist on helmets being worn - always seemed irrelevant when boats weighing several tons are being slung around.

But with respect, you are missing the point. No one is suggesting the hard hat is going to protect you from the boat crushing you if it falls on you, but when boats are being slung its very easy to talk into jib hooks and things dangling where you don't expect them, let alone the tools that slip off someone's deck that they left after undoing the backstay etc.

 

[Pleiades]

Head gear

Another vote for the Gecko Marine Helmets. These are the proper jobby - as used by the RNLI and made in the West Country. I have one onboard but it is reserved for absolutely dire conditions when the boat is being mullered and I am already black and blue from being flung about like a pea in a pod. What is actually more often handy about them is the full face visor for dealing with blinding spray when it is really sheet weather - horizontal hailstones etc.
Can't say it is essential gear but if you do the rough stuff may be worth considering. I also get a use for it when I am up the mast fiddling with thingies, if there is anyone down on deck I get them to wear it in case I drop the pliers or a spanniard on their bonce.
Hope you don't need it anyway.
Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5

 

[Whiskey Bravo]

But with respect, you are missing the point. No one is suggesting the hard hat is going to protect you from the boat crushing you if it falls on you, but when boats are being slung its very easy to talk into jib hooks and things dangling where you don't expect them, let alone the tools that slip off someone's deck that they left after undoing the backstay etc.

So would you wear a helmet when walking past a block of flats with balconies where things could fall? Or out hillwalking when sheep might knock a rock on to you?
Health & Safety has got completely out of hand in this country and probably costs the country billions overall. For instance, I know of somebody who works as a warden at a seal sanctuary who has to wear a high visibilty jacket. Why???? As for the construction industry, don't get me started.

 

[savageseadog]

At lift out or lift in the YC always insist on helmets being worn - always seemed irrelevant when boats weighing several tons are being slung around.

I know of a yard hand who got hit very hard on the head by a furling gear when a yacht had it's rig taken off.

 

[elton]

So would you wear a helmet when walking past a block of flats with balconies where things could fall? Or out hillwalking when sheep might knock a rock on to you?
Health & Safety has got completely out of hand in this country and probably costs the country billions overall. For instance, I know of somebody who works as a warden at a seal sanctuary who has to wear a high visibilty jacket. Why???? As for the construction industry, don't get me started.

It's one thing being told what to wear, it's a completely different matter having the freedom of choice. I think anyone cycling without a helmet, or sailing without a lifejacket, is just plain daft. But I respect their freedom to choose.

 

[john_morris_uk]

So would you wear a helmet when walking past a block of flats with balconies where things could fall? Or out hillwalking when sheep might knock a rock on to you?
Health & Safety has got completely out of hand in this country and probably costs the country billions overall. For instance, I know of somebody who works as a warden at a seal sanctuary who has to wear a high visibilty jacket. Why???? As for the construction industry, don't get me started.

You are getting worked up over something that is not sensible to get worked up over. There are always silly examples, but suggesting its silly to insist on hard hats when boats are being lifted is not a winning argument.

If you walk past a block of flats, you aren't very likely to get hit on the head by something, but in a boatyard with a crane with boats and people everywhere who might leave tools on decks to slip off when the boat is lifted, then the risk is much higher. Hence you wear a hard hat.

Similarly you don't wear a helmet when walking in the country because the risk is low, but if you start going rock climbing most people very sensibly wear a helmet because rocks and pebbles are disturbed by people above and might hit you on the head.

I am not supporting health and safety madness, but sensible risk assessment means you use reasonable precautions to mitigate the risk of using your head to bounce things off. If you choose to do your own risk assessment and say that you aren't going to wear a hard hat to go rock climbing, then that's your look out. In a yard with a crane, then you don't get a choice and I don't see what the problem is.

 

[prv]

It's one thing being told what to wear, it's a completely different matter having the freedom of choice. I think anyone cycling without a helmet, or sailing without a lifejacket, is just plain daft. But I respect their freedom to choose.

And I think anyone sailing with a helmet on (except perhaps in the kind of extreme conditions that Robin envisages) is daft, but respect that freedom too

Pete

 

[Lakesailor]

I'm generally not that careful about safety gear but recently had 32 linear feet of 5mm steel to cut with an angle grinder. I normally wear safety glasses but decided for this I would get a visor.
It was excellent, and only cost about £7 from an agricultural merchant. With this and ear protectors the job wasn't that arduous.

 

[prv]

I'm generally not that careful about safety gear but recently had 32 linear feet of 5mm steel to cut with an angle grinder. I normally wear safety glasses but decided for this I would get a visor.

I keep meaning to get one of those for angle grinder work. Steam up less, too.

Pete

 

[jimi]

I keep my Gecko surfing helmet on board in case I've got to go up the mast or over the side to cut something

 

[Searush]

I don't remember bumping my head since I bought SR about 25 years ago. Just get a boat where you can stand up in the cabin or under the boom(s) as I can.

 

[Lakesailor]

I keep meaning to get one of those for angle grinder work. Steam up less, too.

Pete

I also used the 1mm "plasma" cutting discs. Far quicker and last longer. £14 for a tin of 10

 

[LittleSister]

Just get a boat where you can stand up in the cabin or under the boom(s) as I can.

Would love to. Do you think i could get one on the NHS? (It might save them money in the long run!)

 

[LadyInBed]

I have considered carrying a hard hat on board to use if I need to go over the back to clear the prop.
I have done it a couple of times without but it is difficult to brace yourself to go with the movement of the stern.

 

[onesea]

I am not supporting health and safety madness, but sensible risk assessment means you use reasonable precautions to mitigate the risk of using your head to bounce things off.

There in lies the problem, one persons health and safety madness is another persons reasonable precautions...

As I do not wear a cycling helmet on the roads, I guess you know what the chances of me wearing one sailing are....

I guess I fall on the madness side

 

[Tomahawk]

On the matter of wearing a safety helmet for riding a cycle, your greatest source of risk is being hit by a motor vehicle. That being the case, younwill most likely receive sevear traumatic injury to legs, ribs .etc as well as possible head injury.. Ergo, the most safe option is not to ride a cycle in mixed traffic..

On the matter of hard hats on building sites, you are more likely to suffer a broken neck caused by loss of preipheral vision (upward) and walking into an overhead obstruction...

You will not be hit by the boom unless you gybe accidently... if younare a profecient sailor you will know when to rig a preventer so you can't gybe accidently..

But I did know a bloody arrogent idiot who chartered a 37' boat. Took the family out, gybed and the mainsheet hit his wife onto a winch... turned her into a vegitable... he later left her...

 

[john_morris_uk]

There in lies the problem, one persons health and safety madness is another persons reasonable precautions...

As I do not wear a cycling helmet on the roads, I guess you know what the chances of me wearing one sailing are....

I guess I fall on the madness side

i don't know where you think I suggested wearing a helmet when sailing. I was answering the indignant outbursts about being made to wear a helmet when boats are being craned in and out of the water.

For what it's worth I can't see any mileage in wearing a helmet when sailing. You lose so much wind awareness etc that its potentially more risky. I can see the benefit when climbing the mast as I have been up a mast mid-Atlantic and its not pleasant. Diving under the boat would be another consideration, but for general sailing I'm with you.

 

[prv]

i don't know where you think I suggested wearing a helmet when sailing.

You weren't in the "never wear helmets under any circumstances even when sticking your head in a head-hitting machine" camp, so you must be in the "wear a helmet at all times even when having tea at home with your granny" brigade

Pete

 

[Lakesailor]

I rarely go on-line without some form of head protection.....