Sliding down the backstay

[MJH]

Originally Posted by Oeanda

Has anyone here done it?

Whenever I’m at the top of the mast it looks tempting. It’s a regular event in Patrick O’Brian’s books. Surely it’s been done plenty of times before.
Oddly though, I can’t find any real life accounts of it on the net. I was expecting to find a lot of references, including videos- but nothing. Not that I dug extremely hard.
It’s kind of an all or nothing decision...

A free-fall down the backstay is a fool's journey.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[taxwizz]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

This I'd like to see; no actually, not. If I saw someone was going to try it I'd turn away to avoid the spectacle.

and the blood spatter.....................

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Sliding down while being lowered from a halyard? Or flying down on your own, like in Patrick O'Brien?


The latter would seem like an excellent way to break your neck. Nor do I believe that what was described in the novels actually happened like that.

To me, it sounds like something a teen would do for kicks.

[BugzyCan]

That might be one way to find out if your cable backstay has a wire sticking out, although the result would not be pleasant, or maybe you discover the rope backstay is not as strong as you thought, or is damaged in some way, you may discover it and die soon after. Probably safest to not do that.
Jump off the top into the ocean maybe?

[sepharad]

When my mind asks me a question like this and I find myself wondering or even thinking of asking about it, I remember "My Little voices".

What if, woulda, coulda and shoulda.

Thats usually when I realise they are trying to warn me not to do something I might regret for either a very long time...or for a very short time.

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the bad guys chooses a shiny Grail, drinks from it and bad things happen. The Grail Knight states: "He chose Poorly". Don't be that guy.

(PS, I am an RN and very colorful images leap to mind, which may affecting my advice.)

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

I could see doing it to inspect the backstays if being lowered via halyard or some other line. Last time I was hauled up for rig inspection I went up aft of mast on topping life and came down forward of the mast on spinnaker halyard. Allowed to inspect stuff more completely. Not the same thing I know.

[Captain Puget]

Sounds like a good idea for a Dumb & Dumber episode

[Hardhead]

A wire cheese slicer comes to mind.

[denverd0n]

Lowered slowly, on a harness? Maybe. Sliding down like in the novels... Well, you do realize what a "novel" is, don't you?

[Hesti]

With a wire backstay, you have no way to reduce speed or let youself down hand over hand. So, you will hit the deck at a speed much to high for a safe landing.

In addition, your hands (legs as well?) may hurt so much that you completely let go. If you hold on with your legs, your head will be the first item to make contact at a speed much to high for a safe landing. If you let go completely, we are talking free fall.

It won't be nice for the onlookers.

[Tayana42]

On a gymnasium climbing rope that is 2” hemp and only 20 feet long you climb up the rope and you climb down. If you slide down you get severe rope burns. A wire backstay would cut deeply into hands and legs. By the way, the photo is me flipping through a fire hoop on a gymnastics/acrobatics team in college long long ago.

[CassidyNZ]

Brings to mind when we were kids, spanning a piece of fencing wire from high up on a tall tree to a post buried in the garden 60 yards away. A short piece of galvanised pipe on the wire and we had our own homemade zip line.

The first person to try it got 1/3 of the way down when the piece of pipe got so hot that he had to let go and fell 20ft to the ground. He wasn’t that badly hurt but nobody else ever tried it.

Other than a rig inspection, why would anyone want to slide down the backstay? On my boat you’d end up smashing into the solar array.

[Huskybeer]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

I can see “sliding” down a backstay with your legs wrapped around and controlling your descent hand over hand being viable.

As an alpinist you have several tools to slide down the backstays irrespective of the pesky ssb insulators in a controlled fashion look at the sales website

[Clivevon]

I'll stick in my tuppence worth just in case anyone reading this thread is still tempted. Don't do it. The OP sounds experienced so I am slightly surprised he asked the question, but as others have said already, the backstay - or any other stay or shroud on a square rigged ship - would have been a substantial natural fibre rope - a good handful offering plenty of friction to be gripped by feet, legs, arms & hands. allowing a skilled person to slide down under full control. Totally unlike a modern thin wire rope.
The sliders would have lived aboard for years, & would have daily practiced & improved their skills, maybe bit by bit. I bet they didn't start from the top. Even so, fatal falls were not unknown.
Being lowered on a halyard while clipped to the backstay is an entirely different proposition.

[Creedence]

I had to do a double take for a minute. Talk about a coincidence; I just went up the mast on my Spindrift 44 a couple days ago and got a picture. I heard they used the same mold for both.

And everyone here pretty much covered the back stay sliding. It’s a thing when the rigging is hawser- not so much with small diameter stainless.