Page 286 - Brion Toss - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

with the primary. One way to arrange a safety hal-
yard is to belay one end of a spare halyard and lead
the hauling part to your chair. You just hand-over-
hand up this halyard while the deck crew does all
the work. Alternatively, you can attach one end of
the safety to your chair or harness (see below) and
haul on the other end. This is a little more complex
to set up, but gives you a 2:1 mechanical advantage,
easing the deck crew’s job. If you are strong enough
to haul yourself aloft with this configuration, then
this can be the primary halyard, and the deck crew
handles the safety, only needing to keep the slack
out and a turn around a belay in case you should
tire or slip.
With either safety halyard configuration, lead
the hauling part through a carabiner that is clipped
to your chair or harness. Then, even if you tempo-
rarily lose your grip, the hauling part can’t fly out of
reach. And with either configuration, belay the safety
halyard to yourself once you are in position aloft.
Figure 7-4. The primary halyard leads from the chair, When the halyards are squared away, check all
through the masthead sheave, down to the deck, and your gear, including blocks, shackles, winches, and
aft to a sheet winch. A second halyard belays at the chair or harness. Make sure that no snapshackle or
base of the mast and leads through the masthead self-tailing winch is part of the system; snapshackles
sheave and down past the chair. The occupant of the sometimes do, and self-tailing mechanisms some-
chair goes hand over hand up the secondary as the times don’t.
chair is hoisted (better practice would be some form A block and tackle with a very long tackle is one
of fall-arrest-rated ascender device on the safety), in way to make it easier to get you aloft, but it involves
case the primary should fail. Once aloft, the second- a lot of line, and the blocks mean that you can’t get
ary can be tied to the chair as a safety line, or used very close to the top of the mast. Leading the hal-
for self-lowering. yard to a winch is usually preferable when you need
mechanical advantage.
deck crew will be hauling on, in a way that will keep Whether the hoisting power is manual or
them out from under you, both to protect them from machine, the most important person on deck is
falling gear and so that they can see you clearly at the one tailing the line. This individual keeps the
all times. I like to go up on the front side of a mast— line around a belay point and takes up the slack as
the rake assures I’ll stay in contact and not swing or it comes in. If the people or machinery doing the
spin. If the tail part of the primary halyard is for- hauling should slip, it is the tailer who will check
ward of the mast, lead the halyard to the foredeck. your fall. The tailer watches you all the way up,
The crew can pull by hand or use the anchor wind- controlling the speed of your ascent and watching
lass. If the tail part is aft of the mast, lead it through for any trouble, while simultaneously keeping every-
deck blocks toward the cockpit (Figure 7-4) for one out from under the mast and shushing need-
either hand power or one of the sheet winches. less noise. If you have a request or a problem, you
Next, lay out a second, safety halyard. You will address it to the tailer, and the tailer is the only one
be handling this one in case something goes wrong who answers. A prestigious job.

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