"Edgar" wrote in message
...

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
...

In a real blow, real sailors use safety harnesses and jacklines. A
single jackline down the center of a yacht is safer than two
jacklines
down the side decks of a yacht. It would not be very difficult to get
flipped over the low lifelines and be drug though the water by your
safety line on the side decks. Walking in the center of the boat
keeps
you on the boat.

Wilbur Hubbard

The question was guard rails not jacklines.
But for jacklines the safety factor is determined by the length of the
line
you use to tether yourself to the jackline.
Here there is a problem because a short safety line is better for
getting
forward but once you are there it may impose limits on the work you
need to
do. For this reason the best solution is to have both a short and a
longer
safety line on your lifevest.

Depending on the design of the boat and whether you have a large
dodger in
the way or not the problem with a single central jackline is how you
can
clip onto it before you leave the safety of the cockpit.

But guard rails are a necessary safety factor for any offshore yacht.
Do you
think you just stroll forward in a force 8 blow? Of course you do not-
you
can be reduced to almost crawling from one handhold to another and
you are
better off clipping onto a jackline on the weather side deck with a
short
line before you leave the cockpit than trying to reach round the
dodger to
clip onto a central jackline with what has necessarily got to be a
longer
safety line.
I favour a jackline on each side going forward as far as the mast and
then a
single central one going right to the bow. No problem changing from
one to
the other if you have two safety lines as I mentioned above..


You're correct. When the going gets really rough everybody crawls from
handhold to handhold. You cannot stand up at all. I always feel safer
crawling forward in the center of the boat. That means forget the
dodger. A well designed yacht does not need a dodger to begin with. They
are just another "monkey see, monkey do" yachty gimmick. The next time I
see somebody in bodily contortions trying to look over a dodger, I'm
going to hurl. The things are dangerous. If you're afraid of a little
spray then stay home for Pete's sake. I prefer a single jackline down
the center. I run mine to on the starboard side of mast down the center.
No stupid dodger to dodge. Just clip on in the cockpit, move up and atop
of the house and move (crawl or walk according to the conditions)
forward. If I expect really rough weather I zig-zag lines horizontally
between the aft lower/upper/forward lower shrouds which makes sort of a
cage for working the mast winch main and jib halyards at the mast.
Moving forward to change head sails is no problem even in the roughest
of weather when on all-fours. I like a short life line on the harness. I
don't want to fly six feet and flip over the side. Lifeline height seems
calculated to cut you off at the knees anyway and flip a body right over
the side.

If I were to design a larger boat, say sixty feet or so, I would make it
a raised deck model but I'd build in a walkway right down the center of
the deck. Maybe three feet deep with two foot high lifelines or railings
on either side of it. This would go all the way to the bow with a
circular area at the mast. You could walk from the cockpit to the mast
to the foredeck in comfort, safety and style. The companionway would be
to one side, of course. Steps up to the walkway would be molded into the
bulkhead up from the bridge deck.

Wilbur Hubbard