Jacklines

I am pretty old school – I can’t help but laugh out loud when I see a kid sitting in a stroller wearing a safety helmet or riding a bike down the street wearing full body armor.  I am not sure why people insists on these “precautions.” Perhaps it is because our society is so litigious , we live in fear (of everything?), we are in a big competition to do better than the next guy, or ???.   I dunno….

I grew up in a variety of places – town, ranch, and sort of in-between. I’m sure many of you relics were just like me – my normal day would give a “modern parent” a heart attack.  Learning to ride a wheelie on my bike on the city street – no body armor. Driving tractor as a eight year old kid.  Jumping on and off the moving hay wagon while feeding cattle. Climbing trees. Wondering the fields shooting gophers. Climbing and tunneling thru stacks of hay. Jumping off the catwalks in grain storage buildings into the grain below. Hunting and killing Rattle Snakes for their rattles.  Normal, everyday, kid stuff.

So what happened? Where does the “ultra-safety conscious” attitude stop?  I’m not sure which question is more important.

So, where am I going with this?  I wanted to give a bit of insight into why I would say: There was a time that I thought all the fuss about wearing a PFD (lifejacket) and using jack lines (strapped to the boat) while sailing was a bit silly.

Well, guess what?  My mind has been changed.  I have a REALLY hard head and need to learn things the hard way – for myself.

I recently had the opportunity to sail on a moonless night AND encounter a storm. That experience was strong enough to penetrate my thick skull.  Yes, yes – I’ve read the storm stories. For some reason, I had to experience it for myself.  Being out of the cockpit without a PFD or attached to a jackline when it is pitch black, the wind is howling, the sails are flapping, and the boat is pitching and rolling is absolutely frightening. Watching a loved one in the same position is worse. I now FULLY understand why it would be nearly impossible to recover a MOB/COB (Man/Crew Over Board) in these conditions.  So, jacklines are high on my list of additions (as is avoiding dark nights and storms (day or night!!)).

My research has revealed that tubular webbing makes for an excellent jackline. This is because it can be stepped on without causing your foot/angle to slip or roll as happens with rope/cable.  Jacklines should not be installed super taught as this significantly increases the load that the mounting point must absorb should the purpose of the line be put to use.  The logic (and math) for this are well documented on this page of the Sail Delmarva blog as well as many other places.   Based on this data, I decided 1″ tubular webbing was the answer for my boat.

Of course, this then led to the question of construction material.  There seems to be lots of talk about nylon, polyester, polypropylene, and so on.  I got kinda lost in the details (UV resistance, wet strength, etc…) and elected to take my lead from the rock climbing guys.  They use nylon, so will I.