He was ear to ear grins all day. He's already scouring eBay for a beater to put on the lake over here.

You almost got a high rise out of the boom! That was a great video angle.

John had a GoPro too but forgot it at home. Would have been great to have a headcam shot of him falling off the boat hahah.

Sucks to get dropped off the wire like that!

So...who didn't replace the worn out trap line?

Or did something else let go?

Timbo: The stopper knot that held the pigtail to the bungee pulled through the stopper ball. In retrospect, that stopper ball was way too big for the diameter line I was using.

I was worried that my eye splice let go but no.. in the video I was able to slow mo it in Premier Pro and see that the bungee pulled right through the block on his way into the drink.

Lesson learned.

That SUCKS!

I do find it extremely funny that a split second before the crew splashes, it looks like he's checking his watch, (or at least just looking at his wrist), then poof, he's gone.

Great angle Tad, sorry for your main. Its a sad realization that you just went winging through an expensive piece of cloth.

Eh. It can be replaced :P

I had a quote running through my head, "emergency departure initiating in 3...2....1...."

That sucks! I had a similar thing happen, had a knot let go on a trap handle, but mine happened just as I got out onto the wire in a good breeze, right on the starting line, at GO time, in a 23 boat fleet!

I went straight into the drink, the boat went over, luckily I was down by the pin, so it didn't hit anyone. I got the boat up quickly enough, but with no trap handle on one side, and being Uni, I had to go to the beach to replace it!

I hate it when that happens!

We can put a man on the moon, but so far as I know there is no full proof trapeze rig.

Human error is ALWAYS the fault of traps breaking. Set it up right and replace worn parts and it won't happen. It's just not always a priority like standing rigging.

I'd just re-rigged the whole trap system with the adjustable rig.

The knot/ball were just not the right size. Critical mistake - wont be made again.

I've done the same. It's pretty amazing how fast the shock cord stretches out. Both times I've had trap failures (both my fault) the rings were still in the harness because of the keeper.

No doubt. Then there's this:



I've only had a couple fail, once singlehanded and the only thing I had a decent grip on was a Marstrom tiller extension. Broke the tiller, but I didn't loose the boat. That was a shite day, I also ripped a patch out of a spinnaker that day too. Back to the beach twice, and at one of our worst venues to get in and out of by yourself. Which led to a small hole in the bottom of one of my hulls from a rock. Cascading shitstorms happen to all of us at some point. They've all been my fault though.

I'm probably going to jinx myself with this statement - but I've never had a trap system failure. I did once fail to get the ring engaged past the keeper on my harness and fall in because of that (come to think of it, I think Tad was on my boat at the time). Since then, I've cut all the keepers off my Harnesses. You have to stay after them with maintenance and be careful with the rigging. If you think "that might be a problem", fix it.

Standing rigging can last a life time. Trapeze rigging requires almost constant attention. Why is that?

There is a big difference between "can" and "will". That is why the smart money is on replacing your standing rigging on a regular basis!

Are spinnaker bridles considered "standing rigging"?

Unfortunately not on my boat.

I'd like to re-iterate that it wasn't for lack of maintenance on the boat that caused this, rather a stopper ball that should have been a bit smaller.