Technology


It’s a long way down fromhere


Synergy between Harken companies ties together high-efficiency rope handling equipmentwithworld class rope-safety and rescue training


arken’s experience working with the rescue and emergency services has resulted in a whole new approach to performing safe mast work aloft. Great


things can happen when world-leading knowledge and expertise from different disciplines collide, including revolutionary outcomes that turn long established practices on their head. Much of the safety gear on today's


yachts is unrecognisable compared with that of a couple of decades ago. It has even become routine to equip crew members with a personal AIS unit, so that if they fall overboard their position can be clearly shown on the chartplotter of their own boat and those of any other vessels in the vicinity. And the days when people spent months in a liferaft are,


we hope, long behind us. Yet the procedures – and equipment –


for climbing the rig have barely changed in half a century or more. Granted, bosun’s chairs and climbing harnesses are now more comfortable than older designs but the basic techniques remain the same. As we will see later, the accident statistics even for climbing a rig in harbour are frightening and in today’s world would be deemed unacceptable in any other field. So, there’s clearly something wrong with the prevailing attitude that “everyone has always climbed the rig like this, so it must be OK”. The route by which Harken came to this realisation – and, more importantly,


figured out how best to address the subject – is unsurprisingly a complex one that involves several units within the group of safety and rescue businesses that Harken has placed alongside its legendary marine hardware division. One of the key figures in the story is Pierre Masse, a former professional sailor with three America’s Cups under his belt as mast man, who joined the company in 2007 and is now directeur général of Harken France, based in La Rochelle. During his professional


sailing days Masse says he fell from a rig once himself and has harrowing first-hand tales of seeing other competitors falling, as well as a ‘big problem with one crew member who started turning around the


SEAHORSE 59 �


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