Technology


Even in a properly fitting harness, suspension trauma can lead to loss of consciousness in a surprisingly short time


mast and was stuck … with no one really able to climb and help him.’ Sadly, statistics show that these


experiences are far from unique. While comprehensive figures in such a diverse industry are difficult to compile, Harken has unearthed documentation showing 19 people have died while aloft in the past decade alone. Over more than 10 years, they can document 32 deaths. It has long been known that statistics


for serious injuries or fatalitiesmask a far larger number of less serious accidents and nearmisses. In 1931, for example, the American insurance company superintendent HerbertW. Heinrich analysed 75,000 accident reports in industrial settings. Across his wide data set he found that for every accident that


causes amajor injury there were a further 29 withminor injuries and 300 additional minor accidents or nearmisses. This premise has been updated


several times, including in 2003 by American multinational Conoco Phillips, which found that for every accident with a fatality there were a further 30 with serious injury, 3,000 near miss incidents and a colossal 30,0000 examples of risky behaviour and operating procedures. Every time we climb a mast using existing widespread practices we therefore place ourselves in danger of a high impact catastrophe. One of the most shocking recent instances in the marine industry concerns a 30ft two-handed performance yacht on passage between Fuerteventura and Gran


Canaria in January 2023. One of the crew went aloft but ended up entangled in the standing rigging and was injured. Neither his fellow crew member, nor rescue teams from Sasemar, the Spanish maritime rescue and safety organisation, were able to bring him safely to the deck and his body was eventually recovered 19 hours after the start of the incident. Equally, there are plenty of stories of


visits aloft in harbour going wrong, including an 18-year-old junior deckhand who fell from the rig of a 60m (196ft) schooner while cleaning the mast. A local newspaper, the Jamaica Observer, reported that the incident happened “when the ropes tying her to the mast came undone”. A 22-year-old superyacht deckhand/assistant engineer also tumbled to his death while cleaning the rubrail of a 74m (243ft) motor yacht, suspended using a safety harness and bosun’s chair attached to a fender hook. It should come as no surprise that


Even without injury, gear failure or a tangle in the rig can cue the need for rescue 60 SEAHORSE


Harken France wasn’t the only Harken company that had identified a need to improve safety aloft. ‘The team at Harken ProCare, our superyacht and grand prix technical support and service group, brought our direct attention to it through Elevated Safety, which is one of our rope access and rescue training businesses, with their observation of the professional rigging side of the equation, using techniques that would not be deemed safe in general industry,’ says Harken safety and rescue division commercial director Sean Cogan. ‘Being that the work is of a professional nature, we decided that they would have the aptitude to take suggestion not directly


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