Rob Cook warns YA and race administrators about trap harnesses

Re: Trapeze Harness Releases

To further this important debate I have obtained a copy for myself of the ISO standard for trapeze releases and am happy to report that my major concern of the ability of the standard to assess the more frequent sideways loaded mechanism has been addressed and a suitable test included.

I still have serious reservations about the environmental tests specified (unchanged from the draft) and doubt that the dreams of the standards authors that sailors will wash and check the mechanism before sailing each time will be fulfilled and lives will thus be risked.

So there is an ISO standard that can be applied in Australia, which raises questions about the responsibilities of YA and their constituent bodies and clubs.

Now that the genie is out of the bottle and unlikely to voluntarily go back in, surely it is up to YA to provide leadership and guidance to clubs and sailors. Simply trying to deflect the responsibility to the clubs is not good enough. If the volunteer administrators at club level were all capable of working their way through the labyrinth then there would be no need for our annual fees to sustain the YA.

The first logical step would be to publish and distribute information to sailors on the risks inherent with trapeze hooks becoming entangled with boat equipment and what the sailor can/should do if they find themselves trapped in an inverted situation. We need this for the coming season whilst we wait for the releases designed to the ISO standard to become available. In 2006 ISAF published on its website that it was preparing such material but later the notice just disappeared and nothing further happened.

Information is also needed as guidance for rescue crews on what to watch and how to treat incidents, especially to have onboard a serrated knife that can cut the trampoline decking of a catamaran to access a trapped sailor. Again leadership from the peak body (YA) would be immensely useful to clubs.

Deeper consideration should also be made of the form and wording of the eventual safety regulation that will undoubtedly be issued.

In the original Australian Sailing article the Bethwaite device, which has no hooks to snag, was identified as a workable and probably better alternative that will be ruled out by the ISO standard. Maybe it is possible to develop workable criteria for what is an attachment mechanism that could cause entrapment and require those to be subject to the ISO standard, leaving those that do not fail the criteria available to be used without sailors having to incur an expense. It would also open the door to innovative thinkers to produce alternative designs. How about some leadership from YA?

ISAF has yet to re-insert the RRS about trapeze releases so this would give Australia an opportunity to be influential.

- Rob Cook

The link to the original Australian Sailing article is included as Related Content at the top right hand side of this page, where you can also read comments from various people.