My 10 year old son needs a harness, probably not a full one. Any suggestions?

Hey,

My son who is 12 sails with me and he is small, was quite a challenge to sort a trap harness.

I made one from my old adjustable sailboard seat style harness with a webbing strap like a seatbelt strap to go up over shoulders. The harness has enough adjustemnt to downsize it to close to his size...only just though... he needs to grow some.

I sewed a loop at the back on the seat harness and run the strap through the loop up over his shoulders down to the hook / bar at the front - if that makes sense.

Have one of those plastic strap click together adjusters to make it tighten up.

The seat harness takes all his weight, the shoulder strap just stops it from falling down.

Maybe this helps and cost me nothing excpet some time.

Cheers, Drew

There's been lots of talk about getting kids out of Optis and into cat sailing. My son hates being just crew/passenger who just sits on deck. Once he's out on the wire he'll sail all day. How can you get kids into cats if you can't find a trap harness and get them on a wire?

I'll try the Dakine windsurfing buckets, maybe an XS women's model. However, the XS requires a short 6" spreader bar that only comes with the weird kitesurfing hook. I could try the old fashioned square-plate hook.

Do any of you have kids that sail or did your old butt bucket ball-buster harness leave you sterile?
Worse yet, did you lose your kids to Facebook or the shopping mall?

I bought a kids butt bucket type trap harness several years ago, from Murray's I think. It has the square hook plate in the front where all the straps come together for adjustment. It's small, simple and cheap but it does the trick.

It is a constant struggle to get my teenagers off Facebook and outside, even tougher to get them onto the boat but I'm going to take my 14yr. old daughter (and her boyfriend) out in a few minutes, we've been waiting all day for some wind, which is just now coming in.

Here's what I just found on Rick's online store:

http://store.catsailor.com/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=8403&idcategory=273

I made a harness fit for my 8yo lad by getting a small nappy type harness then taking it to a saddlery shop where they folded up a section of the front and stitched it shorter. It worked perfect then you can unpick the harness if you want later when they grow. I sold that one recently to someone else taking their kids out.

i bought my 10 year old daughter the ronstan XS harness. crutchless with spreader bar. cost me $150. when i let all the straps right out it also fits a mate of mine who is 5'9" weighing 65kg. so they should get long enough out of it.

http://store.catsailor.com/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=31773&idcategory=0

THIS ONE

http://www.kitewindsurf.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=518

Great price, XS.

Thanks, Jon. I see that the Dakine harnesses in extra small require a 6" spreader bar. The only one that small is made by Dakine and has that weird hook the kite guys like. Will that hook work in the small dogbones used on cats? You have a Storm, did you use the Dakine or a Murray bar?

I've used the Dakine spreader bars and like them. Plus you don't have to worry about the hook going into your hull when your pulling them back on board. (Not that kids ever fall off or anything.)

You could have Brian F. make you a spreader bar. I can't see how it's easy to get back on the boat with a hook that sticks out 4-5"s (DAKINE). Julie has the same harness and likes it but with a regular bar.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. The problem with my son is that he has a 24 inch waist. The small men's Dakine is a 28-30 inch waist and the Murray runs big, only comes in medium or large, and costs $184 with bar. There is nothing designed or sized for kids, an admittedly small market segment.

Mike, thank Julie for showing me her Tempest harness. I bought a used Tempest in women's XS that includes the spreader bar and paid only $70. If the hook on the bar does not work on cats I will ask Brian to perform his welding magic to reshape it. Otherwise I will try an old square plate hook.
Cheap extra small used gear

Dave-
Sarah has the same bar pictured and it works great with our setup, but we don't use regular (stainless) dog-bones. I made some out of dyneema and plastic tubing and they work great. You can also nail someone in the noggin and they don't get as pissed. See pic.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/headhinter76/dogbonealt.jpg

P.S. The Tempest seems to fit larger than the Storm. Julie and I examined both.

Now you know you shouldn't post a pic of your daughter on this forum... Thats just mean!

C

LOL, I believe that's his sister.

Jon, how many times has Sarah climbed back on the boat from the water with that harness. You haven't flipped.....yet.

Actually that's Sarah's friend Ashley from Ft. Meade.

And no, Sarah hasn't had the opportunity to attempt climbing back on without damaging the hulls with her massive kite bar. I find the boat sails much faster when not on it's side.

Come to think of it, i don't recall seeing Jon capsize his dart either. I guess he never pushes it

Man are you over-due

(This almost guarantees i am gonna capsize this weekend ...)

The Zhik Trap-20 size 0 harness is probably the smallest harness on the market. It's pricey at $269, but will size down to a 20" waist (maybe smaller).

Available from the Catsailor Online store. They show the T-1, but if you order request the T-2.

I have a picture of my daughter last year when JC was at our Club with the Viper Club, picture is two big although I copied it from another posting here...

http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubb...p;Words=bella&Search=true#Post215660

She is in my Adult Large Hobie Harness from 10 plus year ago. It is incredible adjustable, fits me from 200 - 220 #'s and her at 60#. It’s not perfect, but a kids desire to be on the wire is stronger than the maybe not perfect fit. I was in APS last fall and found in the discount bin a Magic Marine Adult Small that the kids fight over... it was $55. We can know triple trap…