In many knot books you will learn that a bowline on a bight can be used to improvise a bosun’s chair or climbing / rescue harness. I spent last week sailing on the broads (as a volunteer staff member with a youth group) and I relished the several chances I had to practice this.
The boats are very simple, and it easy to pull the wrong line and lose the pulling end of the halyard at the top of the mast. (I know that the solution to this is to tie a stopper knot at the point where the halyard goes through the block at the top of the mast, but this hadn’t been done on any of the boats at the time). To get it back the easiest way is to send a small child (an experienced pole / mast climber) up the mast. I insisted on a safety line, and improvised a harness. My first one was a bowline on the bight for leg loops, with the tail then wrapped around the climber’s waist and bent to itself (where it had exited the bowline) with a sheet bend. A halyard for a safety line can then be shackled (or bent if necessary) to the sheet bend, or to a loop knot in the tail (as a haul / lifting loop). This design worked well as a safety harness for a climber, but I also later tested it myself as a bosun’s chair (as in, the person in the harness does not climb, but is hoisted up with the halyard by people below). It worked fine for this too.
I also made variations (for similar later incidents) with crossings between the ‘belt’ and leg loops and with shoulder straps, with combinations of mid loops and diagonal crossings over the back and bum.
My quick design worked with the knots I knew, but I imagine something like a Spanish or Portuguese bowline might be preferable, as would maybe a more complex harness than just leg loops and a belt.
In your knowledge or experience, what is the way to make a harness? Perhaps there are different answers to that for different applications? Or if it needs to be quick or will be used permanently? Any other information or accepted methods would be great!
Thanks, PolymathArtisan
