Mast climbing - Ouch!

Talulah

Talulah

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 Feb 2004
Messages
5,824
Location
West London/Gosport
Visit site
Our boat Talulah needed a new Windex fitted and fortunately I had a volunteer to go up. Excellent.
In order to route the halyard correctly I made use of a Snatch Block.
Whilst hoisting the volunteer the Snatch Block failed. Both he and I had one of those "I can't believe it." moments. Fortunately he was attached to a safety line and so nothing more serious happened. He was pretty shaken up but managed to get the job done.
Anyway, the Snatch Block is attached to a snap shackle with a bolt and it is this bolt that failed. The Snatch Block is rated at 1600kg and the individual weighs less than 100kg.
I have kept all three parts - the block, the shackle and the bolt and was considering sending these to the manufacturer. Name withheld for obvious reasons.
It was certainly a wake up call on don't be complacent about some of this stuff.
 
Good job you had a safety line. Can you possibly post a pic to let us see how the bolt failed? i.e. did it shear, or strip, or what?
 
NormanS said:
Good job you had a safety line. Can you possibly post a pic to let us see how the bolt failed? i.e. did it shear, or strip, or what?
Click to expand...

Please do post a picture and don't worry too much about the "for obvious reasons" bit. If it really happened and you have the evidence then you need not fear the truth.
 
Am I wrong?

Somewhere in the past I was taught that you never use a snatch block or a snap shackle where a life is involved.
Am I wrong, or has this just stopped being taught?
 
Old Glow In The Deeps said:
Somewhere in the past I was taught that you never use a snatch block or a snap shackle where a life is involved.
Am I wrong, or has this just stopped being taught?
Click to expand...

A snap shackle is otherwise known as a caribina and used extensively for rock climbers safety lines. What better example do you need of them being used where a life is involved?
 
ProDave said:
A snap shackle is otherwise known as a caribina and used extensively for rock climbers safety lines. What better example do you need of them being used where a life is involved?
Click to expand...
A climber's carabiner is a very different thing to what I would expect to be called a "snap shackle" on a boat. One I would trust my life to ... the other no way!


It would be interesting to see some pictures of the failed items esp some close-ups of the broken surfaces of the bolt, Someone like Vyv Cox should then be able to give us some idea of the mode of failure and the possible cause.
 
Don't think so!

ProDave said:
A snap shackle is otherwise known as a caribina and used extensively for rock climbers safety lines. What better example do you need of them being used where a life is involved?
Click to expand...

A Snap Shackle is definately not a Caribina. :rolleyes:
 
For those of you who wonder... why not use a "locked" bowline directly onto the bosun's chair suspension?? I use two halyards both bowlined to the chair and use 2 different spin locks on 2 different winches.

Failure from the top of my mast is likely to kill the poor "schmuck" who was up there...:mad:
 
Whenever I go up the mast on the main halyard I always ignore the halyard clip and pass the line through the ring on the bosuns chair and finish it with a bowline.

I would never like to rely on a snap shackle, safety line is always rigged with a climbing carabiner with gate screwed shut.
 
It has long seemed evident we should use climbing kit - not yachtie - for going up masts, with either advice from or using skilled people.

There have been some horrible accidents with people trying it without proper equipment; personally the thought of a broken back or neck scares the bits off me...
 
NDH said:
Whenever I go up the mast on the main halyard I always ignore the halyard clip and pass the line through the ring on the bosuns chair and finish it with a bowline.

I would never like to rely on a snap shackle, safety line is always rigged with a climbing carabiner with gate screwed shut.
Click to expand...

I have a roller main so I've always used the spinnaker halyard to go up the mast. It's usually just the wife & I & she uses the windlass to do the hauling.

This year my 22 yr old son was doing the masthead work for me.

The masthead block exploded 3 feet from the top. We had a second halyard on him (spare genoa halyard sheeved in-mast) but with a bit of slack in it. He saw the block start to break up & grabbed hold of the mast anyway.

Made me all of a tremble but he seemed unfazed by the whole experience:rolleyes: ! That's yoof for you!!
 
Yes it seems some dodgy practices going on.

Perhaps we should replace all the halyards for climbing rope, and all the snap shackles for decent climbing caribinas.

Personally, quite apart from dubious shackles, I don't know I would trust my life to a sailing halyard, particularly if a few years old.
 
Write to the manufacturer, send the pictures and describe the weight and the height raised to, the least they will do is acknowledge.
I will only use hardware that has a certificated max load, and I guess yours probably was too, so check in the chandlery for that manufacturer and that size unit, and see what the max load was meant to be.
The manufacturing company might send you a new one :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top