I know that I have posted this before, but with many new people building yachts its a story that needs to be told....
While the thoughts are there on the subject of safety ...."Seatbelts". Many years ago I saw a very nasty situation with a 2 seater yacht at Goolwa beach. The yacht was a "Freeflight Manta" sailing along the beach with 2 people with a basic knowledge of landyachting .. and doing the right thing of wearing helmets and seatbelts. The yacht flipped over just below the point the the water was coming up to, Now the buckles of the seatbelts were between the 2 people so when the yacht was on the side the top person was suspended by the belt forcing their body weight down blocking the release of either of the buckles. It was all a bit of a laugh for a while with others helping...it got VERY serious when a wave rolled in over the yacht trapping the bottom person under water for what must have seemed an eternity for them. The lesson learnt VERY rapidly was make sure you can release the buckle by yourself while being suspended by that belt...... If they hadn't been sailing with many other people around im sure it would have been fatal. I have seen some idiots that use sailing snap hooks or a climbing carabina as the buckle. If a yacht is on its side you will need 3 people to lift a 80-90kg person to release a jambed buckle...
Lap car seatbelts are fine if they are kept in good condition, Landsailing sites are often harsh with sand and salt, but if you look after them by washing them after sailing and keep an eye for rust they will give you many years of good service.
gidday giz and all others....what you say is very important there was a case some years ago in west aussie where two blokes in an oddessy type vehicle , dune buggy ended up in a dam ...sadly both drowned in their seat belt, belts, upside down in a dam in the oddy was where the search party found them.
fascinating topic this one . I wold preamble my own comments with the statement that this is what I do and YOU the yacht builder must make up your own mind. I get my seatbelts from wrecked cars. the only history I know of the seatbelt is that the car wa in at least one crash. The only types I use are ones that unlock by pressing the latch down parralel to the direction of the tongue. I have found buttons that press perpendicular to the tongue tend to seize easier, and dont undo under load as well. I sew the attaching ends myself, and attach each side via a punched hole trough 2 layers of webbing with a 5/16 or 8mm mild steel bolt to a welded bracket onto the CHASSIS not the seat. I feel that a force of impact that would make this arrangement fail would firstly destroy the yacht before the mounting or buckle failed. the only times i have raced without seatbelts is in Europe and Argentina where they dont wear them. we realized fterwards that we could have supplied our own and worn them in Argentina. It would have saved a lot of pain for PROMOGIRL( and a MRI) and a lot of stress for me. All the australian clubs have a rule requiring seatbelts. Of course I can only say ths is how I do it , and why, and that you will have to decide for yourself
Hi Guys, I was very impressed with the style and latch/clasp/buckle on the safty belt fitted to Cisco's blowie. Pete, can you please post a photo of the bucke? It looked very similar to the clasp on my old scuba diving belt. I cant remember exactly how the clasp worked but it was instant and very easy and of course, 100% reliable. It was also totaly "sand" proof which is why I liked it so much.
As requested by Joe (Kody), pics of the former blokart seat belt buckle. In my opinion the best of all despite blokart adopting a new mechanical model in 2008.
when suddenly loaded up
