[Alberg30] Bosuns Chair

[George Dinwiddie]

> J Bergquist said:
> 
> If your halyard is not spliced to the shackle, you should use a figure-8 
> follow-through knot to tie it onto the bosun's chair. This knot is used 
> by climbers for securing  belay lines. It is much safer and weakens the 
> line less than a bowline. A bowline is better for tying the head of the 
> sail on, because it's small, but when your life is, literally, on the 
> line, you want to have the safest, strongest knot. You can find a 
> diagram of this knot on the internet somewhere. every climber knows how 
> to tie it.

I presumed you're talking about a figure-eight on a bight, but I
see from http://www.thedeadpoint.com/beta/figure.html that it's
the same knot but tied in a more laborious fashion.

Still, I think that a bowline is plenty strong enough.  I certainly
trusted my life to it plenty of times when I was a climber.  I
didn't worry about the rope failing, but the knot coming undone--a
far more likely occurrence.  I always secured the bitter end with
a fisherman's knot so there was no possibility of it slipping through.

In any event, most halyards have a snap shackle at the end.  Do *NOT*
use this to fasten the bosun's chair on the halyard.  Use a decent
sized screw shackle instead.  A snap shackle can open under load.

Climbing the mast is not rocket science.  Nor is it as demanding as
climbing rock faces.  There is much less potential for dynamic loading.
Therefore there are plenty of solutions that are strong enough.  Just
watch for the places where accidents can occur.  Other than the mast
itself (and possibly the bosun's chair), don't have any single points
of failure.  Think it through and always have something as a backup.

 - George

-- 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  George Dinwiddie                             gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
  The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span those hours spent in
  sailing.                                    http://www.Alberg30.org/
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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