Clip-p-ping on

[zoidberg]

Rock climbers manage it; via ferrata walkers manage it; arbori-tree surgeons manage it; Royal Marines manage it; roofing contractors manage it....


Lydia Alpinista


Why can't blerry sailboaters manage it?

 

[LittleSister]

Rock climbers manage it; via ferrata walkers manage it; arbori-tree surgeons manage it; Royal Marines manage it; roofing contractors manage it....


Lydia Alpinista


Why can't blerry sailboaters manage it?

Generally pretty easy on a big boat. Nigh on impossible to do on a small boat, I find (having tried or contemplated it on four or five of them). Any jackstays/lines outside the cockpit are in the way and/or too close to the edge to keep you in the boat if you fall and/or otherwise impractical.

 

[Poignard]

Generally pretty easy on a big boat. Nigh on impossible to do on a small boat, I find (having tried or contemplated it on four or five of them). Any jackstays/lines outside the cockpit are in the way and/or too close to the edge to keep you in the boat if you fall and/or otherwise impractical.

How about a central jackstay?

Or, clip onto the windward one. That's what I used to do sometimes.

It's a bit awkward passing the boom kicker and the mast when going right forward but with a triple-clip safety line it can be done safely.

 

[johnalison]

Our usual routine was to clip on when sailing with a reef, at night, or in fog. The number of occasions I have had to go forward since having a furling jib were too few to bother with anything other than simple jackstays along the deck.

 

[LittleSister]

How about a central jackstay?

Or, clip onto the windward one. That's what I used to do sometimes.

It's a bit awkward passing the boom kicker and the mast when going right forward but with a triple-clip safety line it can be done safely.

Yes, thought and/or tried all of that, but abandoned as too impractical, especially single-handed where I might need to get back to the cockpit a.s.a.p. to steer etc.

Everything is much closer together on a small boat, so there isn't much at all in the way of space that is uncluttered or needed for some operation or rope run. You have to add in negotiating your body round sprayhood, not enough room to get under boom, narrow sidedecks with only room for one foot at a time even before negotiating round shrouds, and boat way more bouncy and tippy than a bigger one, etc. I found I that with anything apart from webbing jackstay along the side decks (which wouldn't keep me inboard if i fell), I'd often and repeatedly be tripped, entangled or caught on some obstruction, and meanwhile distracted from observing where the boat was going.

I eventually concluded it was safer, or at least less tiring and infuriating, to assume I wasn't held aboard, and make sure i was either hanging on to something strong, or know that I had to wait for the right moment to lunge from, say, shroud to pulpit,

 

[newtothis]

Our usual routine was to clip on when sailing with a reef, at night, or in fog. The number of occasions I have had to go forward since having a furling jib were too few to bother with anything other than simple jackstays along the deck.

I remember hearing/reading something about not clipping on in fog. When the big thing emerges from the soupy grey and breaks your boat in half, you don't really want to be attached to either half of it as they bubble down.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

I remember hearing/reading something about not clipping on in fog. When the big thing emerges from the soupy grey and breaks your boat in half, you don't really want to be attached to either half of it as they bubble down.

Spinlock, perhaps others, now make lifejackets with a quick release for the safety line at the life jacket end.. Modern Lifejackets and harnesses are much easier to use. My first harness had a permanently spliced on safety line and a carabineer that could unlock itself if orientated a certain way on an obstruction.

Pricy though Deckvest 6D | Spinlock

 

[Daedelus]

I remember hearing/reading something about not clipping on in fog. When the big thing emerges from the soupy grey and breaks your boat in half, you don't really want to be attached to either half of it as they bubble down.

Not ideal, if the ship misses you and you fall overside finding you again is going to be a total chance.

If a ship is coming to get you I wouldn't fancy anyone's chances in fog as a big ship swooshes past.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Single handed or not I preferred the idea of staying aboard and putting up with any amount of inconvenience rather than seeing the yacht disappear into the waves and night.

 

[LittleSister]

Single handed or not I preferred the idea of staying aboard and putting up with any amount of inconvenience rather than seeing the yacht disappear into the waves and night.

My advice: when jobs for'ard need doing, send the crew!

 

[johnalison]

I remember hearing/reading something about not clipping on in fog. When the big thing emerges from the soupy grey and breaks your boat in half, you don't really want to be attached to either half of it as they bubble down.

I think you are right. My finger typed it in when I was in cruising mode.

 

[capnsensible]

I remember hearing/reading something about not clipping on in fog. When the big thing emerges from the soupy grey and breaks your boat in half, you don't really want to be attached to either half of it as they bubble down.

Surely yo go a big knife in your pocket to cut the thether?

In my opinion.....its very important to clip on in fog especially if you are sending a lookout forward. Crew needed for that, obviously.

Fog = wet = slippy = accident may happen. For the average yacht, MOB in fog would probably = burial at sea.

I've sailed a lot in fog. Including zero visibility. A skipper task pften unspoken is settling nervous crew and keeping them motivated. Bearing in mind that some sea areas don't have as good forecasting as others. Then all those hours of practising navigation in restricted visibility pay off.

 

[ylop]

Rock climbers manage it; via ferrata walkers manage it; arbori-tree surgeons manage it; Royal Marines manage it; roofing contractors manage it....


Lydia Alpinista


Why can't blerry sailboaters manage it?

Plenty of climbers, tree surgeons and roofing contractors manage to fall off stuff….

I suspect though it’s more often like hill walkers / scramblers not appreciating a particular risk because they’ve done similar stuff many times and got away with it. There’s a line between walk/scramble/via ferreta/rock climb and the distinction is not always obvious. Just as visiting the foredeck on anchor, or in a F8 are different…

 

[zoidberg]

Excuses, excuses!
Anyone got a new one....?

 

[IanCC]

Rock climbers manage it; via ferrata walkers manage it; arbori-tree surgeons manage it; Royal Marines manage it; roofing contractors manage it....


Lydia Alpinista


Why can't blerry sailboaters manage it?

There's an obvious reason climbers practice 'staying on the ledge routine' and not 'man off ledge routine'. If i or my wife leave the cockpit we are clipped in always. But then we are used to it.

 

[Daedelus]

Added reason to clip on: anybody remember the case of Wakhuna?

She was a Moody 47 crossing the channel in fog and approaching the main shipping lanes the crew misread the radar information and a P&O vessel,
Nedlloyd Vespucci doing 25 knots - in the fog - ran them down and tore off the bows. The skipper had the great idea of motoring hard in reverse to prevent the yacht from taking in water as quickly as sitting there or going forwards and this gave them time to launch the liferaft and set off the EPIRB (which failed to work). I don't know if they were clipped on but if they had fallen in the water they would have been worse off, they were rescued in the evening IIRC a teensy peeved that the EPIRB had not helped.

The point being that they would have had time to unclip and get in the liferaft even after being run down.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Excuses, excuses!
Anyone got a new one....?

We were clipped on yesterday. Reefed jib and main, 23kn of wind on the beam, 17kn through the water. Clear weather, other boats in vicinity, it was a race. It’s easier to prevent accidents than deal with the consequences.

 

[veshengro]

I had a single webbing life line stretched between the main hatch and the foot of the mast on my Gaff Cutter, there was no Boom Vang or other gubbins that prevented a clipped on harness tether running fore and aft. There was a ring bolt on the deck centre line on the fore deck below the steel Horse which ran athwartships, she had a self tacking inner jib, and the foreward end was shackled to the Windlass.
I could clip onto the main life line to work aft of the mast and clip a second tether onto the forward webbing before unclipping the first tether.
The system worked and I felt secure enough, the main faff was stowing the unused tether, usually I would bundle it up and just stuff it into my jacket.

 

[capnsensible]

PS it's not always calm in fog.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

We have no excuses as it’s particularly easy to run jackstays, and particularly unintrusive to use them. They run between our lifting eyes, it’s not impossible to fall off when clipped, but it is quite hard.