Padding your mast climbing harness will save your legs and allow you to work longer
Issue 149: March/April 2023
For extra padding, use stiff foam such as ½-inch exercise floor tiles. Keep them in the bag with your harness and add them anytime you will be up the mast for more than a few minutes.
Climbing harnesses have become increasingly popular for mast work, outstripping the traditional bosun’s chair. They are easier to climb in, harder to fall out of, more mobile, and position a person higher when working on the top of the mast. But they are also notorious for putting your legs to sleep. Unless you can get the weight onto your feet and off the harness, as little as 10 minutes of hang time can cause rubber legs on the descent and pins and needles as life returns.
Not only is this uncomfortable and painful, but these are also the warning signs of a potentially dangerous condition — suspension trauma. Stagnant blood accumulates in the legs, and it’s a shock to your system when it rejoins circulation. Clots and deep vein thrombosis are known risks, which increase with age. Many riggers prefer specialized harnesses that are designed for prolonged suspension, but they’re pricey.
My 50-cent solution to the problem is to cut large thigh pads from firm foam, like that used to make exercise room floor tiles. Cut two ½-inch thick by 11-inch-long by 6-inch-wide rectangles, round the corners, and secure these to the inside of the leg loops of a common rock climbing harness with duct tape or something similar. Test the fit by hanging from a halyard in the harness for a few minutes. Make sure nothing binds when you move your legs and that you have enough freedom of movement to use your legs while climbing and descending the mast.
In my experience using this type of extra padding, the harness should now be comfortable for at least 30 minutes of use aloft. That should be long enough for the user to have either finished or want a break for some other reason. And no more stiff “mast legs” when you get back on deck. If your legs start to feel heavy, stiff, or worst of all, numb, return to the deck immediately and finish the work later.
Another safety tip: A rock climbing harness belt must be snug enough around your natural waist that it cannot possibly be pushed down and that you can hang inverted without it coming off. If your waist is not this well defined, you must wear a full body harness.
Good Old Boat Technical Editor Drew Frye draws on his training as a chemical engineer and pastimes of climbing and sailing to solve boat problems. He cruises Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic coast in his Corsair F-24 trimaran, Fast and Furry-ous, using its shoal draft to venture into less-explored waters. He is most recently the author of Rigging Modern Anchors (2018, Seaworthy Publications).
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
