Lifelines

[Iliade]

Either way, check the lengths

.
Following on to the LION MAIB report - I'm looking to get a couple of triple-hook lifelines with a long and a short tether.

Are the elasticated ones a good idea, and what would people recommend or warn against from personal experience?

- W

I use three hook ones, ie one for me & two for the boat. The last boat had strong-points in the middle of the cockpit so there was no way the helmsman could go overboard and lifelines on the foredeck which didn't run aft into the cockpit. With the long strop on the lifeline I could just about get into the cockpit and reach the tiller... The rest is inevitable:

One bouncy day I was sail changing with the short one attached when, in order to avoid some pots, I ran back to the cockpit to disengage the autopilot, jumped in, then came to an abrupt halt in mid-air as I ran out of strop! I came to rest suspended face down with my feet on the guard-wires. I still missed the lobster pots though...

 

[oldbilbo]

I don't argue that this is necessarily the very best arrangement, but I made several of these up to replace some 'tired' personal tethers that had seen better days.

The snaplinks are no-nonsense commercial jobs by Gibb. The webbing loop is purchased from a climbers' store and is tested super-strong.

At night/in lumpy weather, I tend to have one secured to a strong-eye by the tiller, and another to a strong-eye at the front of the cockpit, draped over the bridgedeck and down into the cabin, so anyone coming on deck clips on BEFORE clambering out. These are 'place-specific'.

I also have my 'personal' one attached to my own harness. When helming 'in the rough' I'm attached twice - two directons - so if the boat is rolled I can't go over either side.

Such tethers can be used 'long' or, doubled around something, 'short'.

Such tethers were cheaper than 'store-bought' packaged items, and are substantially stronger.

FWIW.

 

[charles_reed]

Reminds me of a MOB I heard last night, 2 sailors sitting on the stern scoop in a seastate 6, having a cigarette, one stands up to get his lighter out of his pocket and, bang, disappeared.
He was lucky to be picked up - no lifeline and, I suspect, no jacket. Both with commercial endorsements, one ex-MM with a foreign-going deck ticket.
Just shows that familiarity breeds contempt.