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PFDs (personal
floatation devices) with integrated rescue chest harness
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Nowadays, chest
harness and cowtail are used for totally different purposes as
originally intended during their development and initial
practical uses.
Plenty of misunderstandings and near-accidents have been
documented and it is time to sort information and draw some
conclusions.
How could this situation arise? A view at the history of the
development of this equipment provides an explanation:
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The
invention of the safety vest
The first whitewater PFD with chest harness came on
the market in 1981. It was designed by a group (*)
of AKC (Alpiner
Kajak Club) members and was distributed by
Schlegel Paddles.
The first picture of a PFD
with integrated chest harness was published in
September 1981 in the Schlegel Paddle catalogue, the
paddler is Peter Lintner who is still a very active
whitewater paddler (see
www.bondle.de!)
A short time prior some modified climbing harnesses
appeared which were worn over a normal buoyancy aid.
However, those designs did not allow a safety
release under load.
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The Schlegel-Vest
pictured above was upgraded a year later with a carabiner pocket
and a towline. This was the advent of the "Multi-Safe", the
first PFD with chest harness and integrated towline.
The first
"Multisafe"
The towline's intended purpose was to
tow a swimmer (who is too exhausted to hold on to a rescuer's
kayak in a fast moving, big water river) to shore quickly. This
was practiced in groups and rescue techniques were soon
improved. Within a year the first incident happened which
resulted in a successful rescue.
However, to secure a helper
in the water during a "life-bait rescue" the small plastic
buckle of the first generation of vests turned out to be too
weak. Even with relatively low forces pulling on a rope the belt
slipped back through the buckle and the rescuer was not safe
anymore.
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At the same
time °hf manufactured a number of rescue harnesses which could
be worn on top of a normal PFD. Fitted with a quick release
system they could be removed one-handed if a dangerous situation
arose. Those harnesses had much stronger buckles and also
featured a back-bar already.
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In 1986 the °hf "Cordura Classic"
came on the market. It was the first whitewater PFD in
pull-over style, the first whitewater PFD made from
Cordura® outer fabric, and the first whitewater PFD with
quick release buckle and steel back-bar on the chest
harness.
The
strength of the Cordura Classic's chest harness was far
in excess of the breaking strength of standard throw
ropes.
For the first time ever all elements in
the chain rope / carabiner / chest harness were in
excess of 500 daN [Force of 1 deka Newton (daN)
equivalent to approx. 1kg mass]breaking strength.
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 Cordura-Classic
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The idea of a
chest harness with back-bar was taken on by other manufacturers
in the years after and is still state of the art today.
In
comparison to standard PFDs without the chest harness those new
models offered much more opportunities during a rescue.
Nevertheless, all paddlers were also aware of the weaknesses of
the new system:
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- The quick
release buckle can open accidentally
- The quick
release can be blocked in an emergency (i.e. if a paddler is
wedged with the chest against a rock and is unable to open
the buckle
- Friction can be
too high, even with open buckle the belt is not released
- Separation
doesn't work despite open buckle, i.e. if the rescuer
(during life-bait rescue) gets tangled up in their own rope
- Release only
works if the free end of the belt is not too long, etc.
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As a result of
continued training and use of the new technique it became clear
to everyone in 1984 that it is NOT suitable for gear recovery.
Therefore there was no explicit caution back then to refrain
from gear rescue and recovery with those systems. A boat on the
carabiner, then a roll while the rope gets tangled around the
paddler's neck, and a strong pull from the gear in each wave -
nobody wanted to take a risk like this [for only equipment].
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The AKC brochure
Kanu Gefahren ("Kayaking Dangers") from 1984, the undisputed
classic in river safety, discussed in depth swimmer rescues, but
nothing is mentioned about gear recovery with the tow line. The
°hf-catalogue (pictured above the boat-mounted tow line,
1987) also always refers to swimmer rescue only.
Comfort before Common Sense
Of course, kayak
instructors and trip leaders recognised very quickly the
opportunity to use chest harness and cowtail to recover capsized
boats and pull them to dry land with ease. In
harmless situations this was also tolerated,
at least if it was an experienced expert during kayak
instruction on easy, open rivers.
In the end, however, the
wrong example set by experts back then is the reason for today's
problems: The next generation of paddlers got to know chest
harness and cowtail mainly as a tool for gear recovery and
subsequently started using this technique themselves. The
original purpose of the towline falls more and more into
oblivion. This is also shown with another example, the kayak
carabiner:
Kayak-Carabiner
During
training with the tow line in moving water it very quickly became clear that a standard climbing carabiner is very difficult to
clip on to an exhausted swimmer. |
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This coincided
with the fact that rock climbers (it was the beginning of the free-climbing
era) were also searching for a new type of carabiner. In
co-operation with Kong, °hf introduced the first kayak carabiner
to the market in 1988. This design, with a catching "nose",
allowed much easier clipping in.
However, the demand for
this carabiner dropped rapidly when a Paddle Carabiner appeared
on the market. The paddle carabiner is large enough to fit
around a paddle shaft. It wasn't an issue anymore that the new
paddle carabiner was showing the same [clip-in] problem as the
old climbing carabiners in case of a swimmer rescue. When
purchasing a carabiner, kayakers were more focused on towing a
paddle then on its suitability during an emergency.
(Since 1988 °hf cowtails have been supplied with the
"catch-nose" kayak carabiner but kayak dealers report frequently
that their customers often swap the original carabiner with a
paddle carabiner while still in the shop).
What
now?
The weaknesses and dangers of the chest harness
on a rescue PFD were known some 20 years ago but in all those
years no better solution has been developed. In contrary - the
risks remain unchanged but the knowledge about those risks seem
to disappear more and more from paddlers' minds. Therefore,
as manufacturer of this equipment, I would like again to
emphasise the risks with this equipment:
The combination chest harness/cowtail
was not designed for gear recovery. If it is used for this
purpose after all then I want to point out (see above) the
specific risks. If someone uses chest harness/cowtail for gear
recovery despite these cautions then they also accept
responsibility for this decision. The manufacturer is not liable
for incidents arising from gear recovery.
Today, the
quick release buckle with back-bar is recognised standard. Chest
harnesses with this system offer trained paddlers additional
options for swimmer rescue. If they want to use these options
they need to receive training from an experienced expert first. The risks involved with those techniques need to be explained
and understood. Practical exercises under competent supervision
are also an important part of such training.
Attaching
cowtails, ropes or similar constructions without this prior
training can cause life threatening incidents and should
therefore be omitted.
Please also forward
this information to your paddling friends - Thanks very much!
If it is possible to avoid dangerous situations with this
information and maintain everyone's fun in the boat then
this essay fulfilled its purpose.
With those lines I would like to play my part.
See you on the river! |
Horst
Fürsattel
hf
Kajaksport
(November 2005) |
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Useful additional
information:
Palm Chest Harness Info
(PDF)
click here
Palm Towline Info
(PDF)
click here
Printable version of this
article (PDF)
click here
(*)
Fredi Höll, Ingo Kiewel, Werner Hönig, Volker Hartwich, Holger
Machatschek |
| Reprint of this
page in the name of river safety is emphatically desired but
only complete without any omissions and with reference: "Horst Fürsattel,
www.hf-kajaksport.de" |
