[C320-list] Raising the Bosun's chair

[Quentin Murphy]

There is more than one reason for a safety line.  The line breaking is the
least likely of possibilities.  A shackle, a block or attaching method may
somehow come undone.  We can all make mistakes.  If the main halyard gets
jammed, then there is a second way to lower one down.  Sure is better than
sliding down the mast from the top unassisted.  If there is a substantial
risk, falling counts as that, one should always have redundancy.

Anyway, no one has still explained how to "tail" the windless line and still
attend to the safety halyard which will be aft of the mast.  One realizes
you raise or lower a few feet of each line at a time.  But when you leave
the line wrapped around the windless, I guess you have to tie off to a
nearby cleat each time you attend to the safety halyard.

Quentin Murphy
Celtic Knot #667

-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com
[mailto:c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com]On Behalf Of MICHAEL COLE
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 10:55 PM
To: C320
Subject: [C320-list] Raising the Bosun's chair


Koen--at the risk of being repetitive the bow roller works perfectly well.
We turn the main halyard block at the foot of the mast and run the halyard
on the underside of the bow roller and back to the windlass .  The rest of
the procedure is as you advocate as there is always two of us involved.
 Whether we would bother with a safety line in future I'm not sure as I've
just replaced my main halyard here in Sydney with an 8mm super braid with
anSK75 Dyneema core  the rope having a 6083lb breaking strain. I realise
this is a gross overkill but it has virtually no stretch and the boat does
spend most of it's life club racing
    Mike Cole   #421 Mio Dio