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Old 16-12-2007, 13:09   #1
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Bungee's ARE dangerous!

This winter storage I wanted to put a little larger tarp over my boat to help keep the local starling (SP) birds from crapping on the boat. Doing so meant I could not bungee it to the lifelines, so I hung 1g water bottles on the eyelets of the tarp, like I have seen others do.

Wellll, that wasn't such a good idea! With a bigger tarp it caused more wind resistance & causing the water bottles to lift up and onto the deck. I had the bungee's looped thru the handle of the bottles with the hooks attached to the eyelets

So, in an attempting to readjust the bottles and make it secure I disconnected one of the hooks, which happen to slip out of my hand allowing the water bottle to fall over the side. As a normal reaction to something falling I looked over to see it reach the end of the bungee and before I could possibly react it stretched out the bungee as far as it would go and then slipped out of the handle.

That suker came out of there so fast, came right up and hit me right in the kisser. The blood was almost instant. I thought I had been shot in the mouth.

I managed to work myself below, after the shock of what I had done, to find a mirror and discovered a nice 10 mm laceration just above my upper lip and a big blood blister on my lower lip.

Man, was I lucky! If that had been my eye, I'd be hurting, bad! I could have used a couple stitches but I'm just going to keep the scar as a reminder to be aware of the power of bungee's

Users beware!!!!

I'm not one that usually brags/complains about my stupidity, but this should be a warning to all.
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Old 16-12-2007, 13:50   #2
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Ouch! People at work are going to be wondering who you had the fight with.

ID
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Old 16-12-2007, 14:10   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by delmarrey View Post
That suker came out of there so fast, came right up and hit me right in the kisser.
Its a pitty that one of mans greatest iniventions has come back to bite us on the bu..... kisser....

Mark
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Old 16-12-2007, 14:27   #4
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I used to teach 5th grade. I had a student once who was playing with a bungee cord. He lost an eye. They can be very dangerous!
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Old 16-12-2007, 14:28   #5
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Ouch! People at work are going to be wondering who you had the fight with.

ID
Being the weekend, they'll all know where I had been. I'll just have to explain why I was out at the boat while being on light duty with a bulging #2-3 L-disk.

I'll just have to say it was an emergency.
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Old 16-12-2007, 16:28   #6
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OUCH!!!!
I always cringe when I use those things...
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Old 16-12-2007, 22:55   #7
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I can attest to the potential lethality of bungees. In a non-boating incident I had strapped some storage containers to a dolly and had my wife help me lift them in the van. Just as we were sliding it in ***WHAM*** the thing came loose and hit her square in the nose. My neighbor ran over, he said it sounded like a gun went off. It was a clean break, and she needed 3 stitches. She's now my ex-wife. Oops.

I now use black rubber straps whenever I can. The first sign of wear and I toss them. At least they are cheap.
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Old 16-12-2007, 23:38   #8
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I helped Marauder furl his main. He has bungies with balls on them.
Crap things. One of them let go and smacked me in the eye. Made a real crack. I reckon that was the bone behind the eye that made the noise. All Andy could do was laugh.

I felt like passing out. Bastard didn't even offer me a beer.

It is like shooting yourself with a powerful sling shot.
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Old 17-12-2007, 01:48   #9
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Apparently, you’re not alone Del.
It’s estimated that up to 640 injuries from elastic luggage straps (bungee cords) require hospital treatment each year in Australia ...

Hazard #43 Elastic Luggage Straps
http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/VISU/hazard/haz43.pdf

Bungee Cord Danger Analysis
http://www.triodyne.com/SAFETY~1/SB_V12N3.PDF
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Old 17-12-2007, 21:31   #10
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I purchased some of the bungee cords with the ball on one end for sail ties on a friends boat thinking they would be one less thing for his newbie crew (family) to have to figure out how to tie. After socking myself in the face with one that slipped out of my hand I am pretty sure I did him no favors. Unfortunately my wife saw them and because she hates having to tie anything she bought some for our boat. They are still in the garage unopened. I picture myself scrambling about trying to tie down a main by myself, which is how it usually works on my boat, in a bad wind and having one of these things letting loose at the worst moment and making an unpleasant event even worse. I do not think the Devil invented them but maybe one of his close friends. Good Luck.
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Old 17-12-2007, 23:00   #11
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Give them to some one you don't like. They are horrible dangerous bloody things.
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I purchased some of the bungee cords with the ball on one end for sail ties on a friends boat thinking they would be one less thing for his newbie crew (family) to have to figure out how to tie. After socking myself in the face with one that slipped out of my hand I am pretty sure I did him no favors. Unfortunately my wife saw them and because she hates having to tie anything she bought some for our boat. They are still in the garage unopened. I picture myself scrambling about trying to tie down a main by myself, which is how it usually works on my boat, in a bad wind and having one of these things letting loose at the worst moment and making an unpleasant event even worse. I do not think the Devil invented them but maybe one of his close friends. Good Luck.
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Old 17-12-2007, 23:26   #12
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They can be both a blessing and a curse. I have always been rather careful of those things. I don't stand right in the line of fire of them.
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Old 18-12-2007, 06:51   #13
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A fellow I know was strapping down a load in his truck and had the other end slip out which came back and knocked out a couple of his teeth.
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Old 18-12-2007, 07:10   #14
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I can attest to the bungee things with the plastic balls on them! I USED to use them. Trying to tie down the main and one end of the thing slipped out of my hand. Other end came flying around the boom and hit me square on the lense of my sunglasses. Thank god for ballistic lenses cause this thing was packing some energy and would have put my eyeball on the tail end of my brain for sure.
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Old 18-12-2007, 09:40   #15
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I hope this isn't taken as thread drift, but with all the talk of tying down mainsails I thought I'd add this. On my boat, lazy jacks are connected to fiberglass battens in the sail cover which is a 2 piece affair with a zipper down the middle of the top.
No sail ties or those horrible bungies are needed. Just drop the main into the cover and zip it up. I can do the whole thing from the cockpit except the zipping up part.
It's a homemade version of Doyle Stackpack. I can singlehandedly drop the main with only one control line. There's no stress or risk of injury even when it's really hooting.

Steve B.
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