from Harken, but rather from Elevated Safety, which is organised to train professionals for difficult rope access and rescue solutions. ‘The Harken Pro Care Team initiated
the conversation with Elevated Safety, first to seek advice on whether this was a problem worth advocating for a solution,’ he adds, ‘and secondly to use the resource we have in building deliverable curriculum and training development tools to fit the operation.’ ‘Climbing a mast is the same as
climbing a tree or a building – generally you need a full training and a certificate to do this type of job, because it's technical and dangerous,’ says Harken ProCare manager Mark Gardner, who’s responsible for providing customer and technical support to all of Harken’s superyacht and grand prix racing clients. MarkWiss, Harken’s director of global
grand prix and customyacht sales, is another force behind the development of this initiative. ‘A really nice thing with Harken is that over the last decade or so, we diversified our business into non sailing activities,’ he says, ‘having realised our products are there tomanage rope and that we had a lot of customers buying our equipment for non-sailing applications.’ Generally these were sailors who recognised the usefulness of Harken products for use in their own non-sailing related businesses. ‘It was a really eye- opener for us,’ adds Wiss. ‘Fast forward to now and we've done a really good job in creating a space focussed on safety and rescue. ‘Whether they're climbing a wind
turbine or the side of a tall building to wash windows, people need training, qualifications and certified equipment before they can work aloft. It's the same concept for sailing and we are able to take the lead in this marketplace. So it's gone full circle where the sailors who use our sailing equipment are now able to be trained through our safety and rescue division.’ Figuring out what steps are required
to make change happen is typically a far more complex matter than simply identifying the need for it. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a multidisciplinary corporation, whose DNA is fundamentally grounded in a search for world class solutions, to assemble the knowledge and expertise needed to successfully challenge entrenched groupthink across an entire industry. This was therefore a big initiative with buy-in across the many sectors in which Harken companies are now leading forces. An important factor that became clear
at an early stage is that, without proper training, simply having the very best rope safety equipment on board is not enough. Correct and appropriate operating procedures tailored to each situation are equally important, which means training has to be an integral part of the offer. Nevertheless, Harken never intended to
For any rescue, devise a plan and establish proper communications at the outset
dictate exactly how mast climbing needs to be done. Instead the plan was always ‘to offer our experience in how different methods could be of use to make the work safer, to enable the rescue of a co-worker, and possibly to add operational efficiency with technique and equipment options they may not have seen before,’ Cogan told Seahorse. Masse says Harken France didn’t
initially have the ‘experience, the skill or the knowledge’ to pursue the project in house. However, expansion at Harken at the corporate level was creating a perfect opportunity. The marine industry has always been prone to accentuated peaks and troughs in each economic cycle and Harken started to diversify outside of its core marine markets after the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Operators in sectors as diverse as
theatre, crowd management at major sporting events, tree surgeons and first responders were already using Harken equipment – thanks to its low friction, high efficiency nature – and were pushing for items to undergo the rigorous certification needed to use them for human suspension at height. In 2011 Harken officially recognised the potential of these markets, creating what is now known as the Harken Safety and Rescue division, along with a plan to rapidly become a world leader in the sector. This was achieved in part via a number
of strategic acquisitions and in typical Harken fashion the company looked to harness the world’s best talent in the world of training at height. Given that this knowledge was not available in the marine industry, the company acquired Illinois, USA-based Elevated Safety which was
already widely recognised as a world class leader in training for rope access. This company was founded by first responders with years of experience in urban fire rescue and even today virtually every Elevated Safety trainer has a day job as a firefighter or emergency medical technician. They also have teams on standby to be flown around the world to take part in the most technically challenging rescue operations imaginable in both maritime and terrestrial domains. In the past these have included leading missions to recover crew from large commercial ships that are lying on their side following a capsize. In 2023 Elevated Safety itself acquired
Wyoming, USA-based Peak Rescue to further boost the company’s expertise, especially in the realms of backcountry and mountain rescue. These trainers train to specific standards using a curriculum certified by the Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT). In a three-year
period two Harken Inc teams have won the world’s most
demanding rescue competition – GRIMPDay. This is effectively the America’s Cup for the world’s rope rescue community, bringing teams from around the world, including firefighters, civil protection, army, police and others, to compete under duress on tasks inspired by real-world situations that involve saving people in precarious situations and under time pressure. We can be in no doubt, therefore that
Elevated Safety has some of the very best training personnel in the world, who are on a par with the most seasoned rescue brigades internationally. The firm also has a longstanding and illustrious client list
SEAHORSE 61
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