Us offshore sailors think and talk a lot about crew overboard prevention, but there’s another risk we subject ourselves to frequently that does not get much air time (ouch, bad pun):
Falling off the boat when she is out of the water.
And, believe me, even a 6-foot fall onto a hard surface can do huge damage, as I found out some years ago.
So it’s well worth learning about, and using climber’s fall protection. And the cool thing is most of us already have much of the required gear in our mast-climbing kit, or at least we should.
Hi John,
Good warning.
For me scaffolding is the scariest. I know 2 people whose lives became severely compromised by falls of ~~6 feet off scaffolding. One was a boat yard professional and one a skipper and both just lost a sense of where their feet were as they concentrated on the job at hand.
Harness-up is good sense to provide safety at sea or on land.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Hi Dick,
I agree, In fact I think ladders are generally safer than scaffolding, as least if properly secured to the boat. And I too know two people who have fallen off in the boat yard. On who got away with it, and one who didn’t.
This is good advice.
Honestly, the main take-away here (and the basis of all fall protection) is that you need to take a moment to stop and think:
If you can honestly and truthfully say that you’ve considered those questions and are satisfied with your answers, then – no matter what actual system you end up deciding to use – you are in a much better situation than the vast majority of people who are doing similar work.
Hi Matt,
I think that’s a really good way to look at it. As you will remember, when you and I did the series on mast climbing many of the comments were along the lines of “I have this cracked”. I know I for one got a lot safer when I changed that to “I’m going to really think about what I’m doing and look for mistakes I’m making”.
For others: Matt has had full on industrial fall arrest training. You can read about how he applies that to mast climbing: https://www.morganscloud.com/2022/11/02/going-up-the-mast-part-1/
I fell in January while descending a ladder in the boatyard after completing some work on my Beneteau 49. Dropped about 3′ to gravel and rolled back almost hitting stern drive on adjacent boat with my head. Broke my fall with my hands, 1 fractured and casted for weeks.
I live alone and realized that if I wasn’t conscious after an injury that it might be days before I was discovered. Same could happen inside the boat, the chance a good Sam would discover me are nil.
New procedure! I activated the fall detection on my Pixel phone and watch. That yields auto 911 and ICE contact notification. Additionally, I use Google’s Personal Safety app religiously for any solo boat work. You start a safety session with a planned time to complete, example 2 hours. If you don’t check in before time expiration it calls your ICE list and 911.
There’s a lot of attention about the need for PLBs at sea. We need to have help find us in the yard or working at the dock too!
Hi Art,
Yikes, what a relief you did not hit your head. And good point about the dangers of being in a deserted boat yard without anyone knowing where you are or when to expect you back. Thanks for the tip on the safety app.
I managed to miss the dockstep descending backwards off our boat: fell ~4’ onto concrete, landing on the point of my shoulder. Ow. Husband loaded me into a dock cart for the trip back to the car, to drive me to the hospital: I was conscious and refused to pay the exorbitant costs of an ambulance! (I’m in California.) Broke the head of the humerus, but fortunately no surgery required, just six months of aggressive physiotherapy. I am obsessively careful about disembarking now!
Hi Sarah,
Sorry to hear that, but thanks for sharing. Most people—me included, until I broke my leg—have little idea how much damage a comparatively short fall can do.
i was going to climb a ladder and do some boat work–and was reprimanded by a professional boat painter who told me that “ladders are for climbing not working” (he has a set of very safe looking platforms that he uses).
And yes –scaffoding can be great or very dodgy!!
Very useful article
Peter
Hi Peter,
I think that’s one of those areas where hard and fast rules break down. If working in a small area close to the ladder, as I was, I actually find a ladder more secure because my entire lower body is resting in on the ladder, and also, if set up right so the ladder goes well higher than the working position we have a bunch to grab at shoulder height and higher.
Great to see John raising this issue and the fall arrest suggestion provided.
The below dot points may be helpful. These are based on erecting/dismantling scaffold on high rise and low rise buildings. This ranged from working at heights > 500 ft to housing estate contracts.
Adopting all of dot point 1 criteria may be cost prohibitive or impractical. An alternative is a small scissor lift. In remote areas without access to equipment, the scaffolding criteria provided in dot point one can be constructed for deck level and lower heights access. Scaffold standards with the criteria are readily available.
A safer option than the dot point 3 ladder access are stair treads that include a wide landing return at deck level and guardrails on all sides. Fabricated versions exist or can be made up.
My era of scaffolding was back when erecting scaffold on 1 board and climbing the outside of the scaffold was commonplace. Safety harnesses were not used. Would I haul out with dot point 2 and 3 access? Not on my life.
Hi Julian and Kylie,
I agree that deck access while hauled is always a high risk proposition and that stairs are best. The problem is one of practicality in a boat yard. In many cases boats are placed too close together to make stairs work, and then there’s the problem of off season storage and moving them around. So I fear ladders are just something we have to live with. One of the things we can do to reduce the risk is make sure there is plenty of ladder above the deck level to hold onto as we make the transfer. Of course that also means the ladder must be well secured both at the deck and bottom to stop it slipping out of place. It’s also important to have our own ladder since the ones around boat yards tend to be dodgy at best.
A few thoughts:
I would suspend my self with some manner of ascender. In this way I can move up and down and maintain the tension (or at least lack of slack). Ascenders are ONLY rated for falls if there is no slack, and are used in pairs (at real height), but for this example, one would be very safe.
You can also clip to a well-secured ladder for extra stability. I’ve done it many times.
Hi Drew,
Good thoughts
With no mast in, it’s difficult for me to see how the point of suspension could be any higher than I had it. The only options would have been the top of the ladder or the pushpit, and I would not have trusted either to take the load of a fall.
Good idea on an ascender, but I knew they were not fall arrest rated, so as a non climber I did not feel qualified to make an exception.
I might have run the rope around the other side of the steering pedestal, but I don’t know your exact arrangement. I will tell you that short sideways swings can be surprisingly jarring and damaging, as you head smacks into something. But better than hitting the ground!
This was written by Petzl and summarizes ascenders and fall arrest. The main problems are:
But used for positioning (kept snug while working–no slack) and near the ground such as this, they can be very useful. Up the mast they must be used as specified. Accidents with a single ascender are rare but not unheard of.
https://www.climbing.com/skills/sponsor-content-when-is-it-ok-to-fall-on-an-ascender-while-toprope-soloing/