Safety Harnesses

By Dave and Jaja

I have met a few cruisers (not many) who won't wear a safety harness--ever. This is a serious mistake. Fortunately, the majority of cruisers at least try to wear some sort of safety harness--most of the time.

Even the most experienced rock climbers use ropes.

When I was 19 years old, I sat alone in the cockpit of my 25-foot sailboat during a mid-ocean night watch. I stared into the darkness and contemplated the black ocean. The distance from the boat's deck down to the surface of the water was about three feet. I tugged on my safety harness reassuringly. I thought: "Without a safety harness this distance might as well be 3,000 feet because if I fall off the deck into the water--without a harness--I will die. If I fall overboard with a safety harness properly clipped on, I will remain attached to the boat and have a chance of living. Simple fact, simple truth."

People who go on deck at sea without being clipped on are taking big chances. They are standing on the brink of their mortal existence.

OK, I am being melodramatic. But you get my point. Safety harnesses are a serious issue. There are a hundred tales of sailors being lost at sea. During one of the first BOC challenges (the solo yacht race around the world) French sailor Jacques Roules went on deck without wearing a harness. It was his macho-man credo. In the Southern Ocean his boat was knocked down flat by a large wave and he was thrown overboard. Luckily for him, however, his mast was in the water and he was able to grab hold of a shroud. When the boat righted he was lifted out of the water and he found himself a dozen feet off the deck--but at least he was still with his boat. During the next BOC challenge he was lost as sea. His luck ran out.

During my solo transatlantic passage on DIRECTION in 1988, I went on deck at 2 a.m. to change jibs. One second I was on my feet--and the next second I was falling head first towards the water. What startled me most about my first (and only) falling-overboard experience was the absence of a noticeable transition between walking and falling. I did not pinwheel my arms and have time to think, "Hey, Dave, you knucklehead, grab something! You're falling overboard!" No. All I remember is seeing upside-down lifelines fly past me. I reflexively reached out, grabbed the lifeline wire, and held tight. This action stopped my inertia. My feet swung around and slapped the cold ocean. At the instant when my two fingers began to lose their grip on the slippery lifeline wire, my safety harness took up the slack and squashed my nose. I climbed back aboard.

I have a high opinion of wearing safety harnesses.

Our Gear

My safety harness is made from three-inch-wide, extra thick, webbing material. A heavy-gauge D ring adorns the ends. I've had the harness for so long I can't remember who made it. The tag is faded and scuffed from years of use. Jaja's harness is similar to mine except that she hand-sewed hers together. Our children also wear safety harnesses. We make them ourselves using good-quality webbing material and big D rings.

There are a few philosophies concerning tether length, and which type of tether clips to use. The standard store-bought tethers are generally 6 feet long. They have a loop at one end (for semi-permanent attachment to the harness) and they have some type of spring clip to attach to the boat. To us, this basic "tether system" is full of shortcomings.

The first problem is that spring clips are very dangerous. If the clip is twisted just so, it will unclip itself. Good-bye, sailor. Second, if the tether is attached semi-permanently to the harness, and you get in a bind, you may not be able to reach the clip at the other end to free yourself. Third, unless you have tether jacklines on deck, a six-foot tether is too short. You will have to clip and unclip frequently to move around and get stuff done on deck. Every time the clip is unfastened you are flirting with death. The solution, of course, is to have two clips (so that one is always attached to the boat) but in the work-a-day world of ocean sailing, dealing with two clips takes all the fun out of sailing. It is also a pain in the neck.

Our solution is to have a long tether with hefty snap shackles at both ends. This works well for small boats. On 25-foot DIRECTION, our 16-foot tether was attached to an eye bolt in the cockpit and it was long enough to allow us to walk all the way to the bow. On DRIVER our tethers are 22 feet long. We made the tethers ourselves using 1/2-inch braided nylon rope.

The argument against having a long tether is if you fall overboard you will trail a long way behind the boat. I've also heard that the shock action from the sudden stop (after a 22-foot "fall") could cause injury.

When I go on deck, I naturally walk between the shrouds and the mast--it's difficult not to. So, if I fall off the deck (as I did on DIRECTION) the tether will "wrap" around the shrouds, which halves the length of the tether. The shrouds also act as a shock absorber. If I fell from the cockpit, the tether would ride over the lifelines which would also act as a shock absorber.

OK--you have fallen overboard and are trailing behind the boat. On a 25-foot boat such as DIRECTION, as soon as you hit the water, your waterlogged bulk will cause so much drag the boat will stop dead in her tracks. I know this because in the tropics we used to take turns dragging behind the boat to cool off. On a 33-footer like DRIVER the boat speed is reduced much less by a dragging human. However, I would rather trail behind a boat than get trapped under the transom--which is what could happen on a short tether. Another advantage to a long tether is the person on deck will have more to rope to work with if they feel like retrieving you. As described in our previous Crew Overboard essay, if someone goes over the side (and they are still attached) put a snatch block on the tether line, then hook a halyard to the snatch block. Hoist away on the halyard, leaving the tether attached to the boat.

If you are sailing alone, it is a good idea to have a "trip line" of some sort trailing behind the boat, something that you can pull to disengage whatever self-steering mechanism is hooked up. Regardless of the length of tether, it will be easier to climb back aboard if the boat is stopped.

Another advantage of a long tether is we usually remain clipped on when we go below to make food and drinks. If we plan to stay below for a long time, we do not release the tether line from our harness until our feet hit the companionway ladder. Likewise, we clip on before our feet leave the ladder to go back on deck. Some may call this paranoia. We call it cheap life insurance. Our harnesses and tethers hang in the companionway when not in use.

My worst nightmare is falling overboard and watching the boat sail away without me. Jaja's worst nightmare is coming on deck after a sound sleep to discover that I have fallen overboard. I know a few cruisers who do not wear safety harnesses because it makes them feel encumbered. They feel roped out of the freedom that cruising represents. If I am clipped on I feel free as a bird. I can move around the entire boat without having to worry about clipping and reclipping.

Our goal when cruising is to get from point A to point B in one piece, and have a good time in the bargain. For the money, our harnesses buy us more freedom than any other piece of gear on board.

I guess it's all how you look at it.