Jack Stays - Yes or No?

[oldmanofthehills]

in my chosen cruising ground, the muddy Bristol channel, it is reckoned that you might die of hypothermia in as little as 45 minutes so casting yourself off from the boat is a poor idea in most cases. I know someone who did it and swam a mile to shore but he was lucky and it was high summer. Mostly I am 3 or 4 miles off and my PLB might only enable the RNLI to find my expired corpse a day later . However if you do need to let go a well designed clip should be free-able with one hand. Much better to never fall off boat. Always move on the windward side, crawl if necessary and clip on.

I have use jackstays on all my boats but then reattach to mast or stays when working. My biggest fear is actually being jolted overboard from the bows while working the anchor winch or trying to furl the jambed genoa. I now have a twin hook leash with short and long settings and now also netting just as I used too when I had kids aboard

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I have jackstays running along each sidedeck starting just forward of the cockpit and terminating at the mid-ships bow cleat. There is a tether permanently rigged to each jack stay with the free end clipped to a ‘D’ ring each side of the spray hood. When I go forward I clip an elasticated tether to my harness/life jacket, remove one of the permanently rigged tethers from its ‘D’ ring and clip that on as well before leaving the cockpit. Once forward I clip the free end of the elasticated tether to a strongpoint at the mast. Sounds a lot of faff, but it only takes seconds.
As an added security bonus I have taken a leaf from the Pardie’s book and fitted a webbing ‘handle’ just above each reefing cringle on the mainsail. Much more secure than trying to grip slippery Dacron when taking in a reef.

 

[thinwater]

I have jackstays running along each sidedeck starting just forward of the cockpit and terminating at the mid-ships bow cleat. There is a tether permanently rigged to each jack stay with the free end clipped to a ‘D’ ring each side of the spray hood. When I go forward I clip an elasticated tether to my harness/life jacket, remove one of the permanently rigged tethers from its ‘D’ ring and clip that on as well before leaving the cockpit. Once forward I clip the free end of the elasticated tether to a strongpoint at the mast. Sounds a lot of faff, but it only takes seconds.
As an added security bonus I have taken a leaf from the Pardie’s book and fitted a webbing ‘handle’ just above each reefing cringle on the mainsail. Much more secure than trying to grip slippery Dacron when taking in a reef.

That is very similar to what I did on the PDQ. The jackstays end about 4 feet aft of the bow. I also had hard points in the cockpit that would allow me to reach the sternrail and davits (center cockpit).