Trapeze revolution?

Julian Bethwaite's new quick release trapeze harness has been longin development

Harry Bethwaite models the new harness

Some five or so years back, Julian Bethwaite flew into Helsinki airport in Finland for a meeting with a number of members of the sailing fraternity. The meeting coincided with the 49er European Championships being held there.

On his arrival at the airport, an utterly distraught young woman named Lotta met him. The two of them drove straight to the hospital to find Julian's friend, Magnus, on oxygen. Miraculously, he was OK given the ordeal he had just been through.

Lotta and Magnus had been sailing Julian's boat in the Europeans, the wind was very fluky but they were having fun. One particular gust appeared to disappear but then hit them unexpectedly. Between almost rolling to windward and re-gaining their footing, they capsized to leeward as most of us have done countless times. Lotta was thrown beyond the jib and Magnus found himself lying across the shrouds. Apparently they laughed a bit about it and the boat did what most boats do when there is a large weight on the shrouds and started to turn turtle. No big deal but what neither of them knew was that Magnus's hook was around the shrouds and as the boat rolled very slowly, the hook slid down the wire until it was too late. Magnus could not get un-hooked and was pulled under the water.

Lotta struggled unsuccessfully to try to keep his head above water and to untangle the hook. Gradually Magnus began to close down. If not for the quick thinking of some Spanish sailors who literally reeled him out and then but for some diligent resuscitation work by Lotta and the Spanish, who were able to kick start him again, this tale would have had a tragic ending.

Magnus survived, for all intents and purposes unscathed by his ordeal. He bought the boat, which ended up as a write off, and is still actively involved in the sport of sailing both on 49ers and on America's Cup yachts.

We have all had near escapes, and sailing is probably one of the safer sports, but it was the look of utter despair on Lotta's face that kick started Julian Bethwaite into trying to 'build a better mouse trap'.

Less than a week later Bethwaite was in Canada with Ian Bruce, one of the more progressive minds of our sport and between them they brainstormed 10-15 different options. Within two months Julian had discarded all but five of those ideas and had gone about building working prototypes of the better ones. Within six months he had narrowed it down to one unit which was based on a pull pin, quick release system, where if you got into trouble you reached down, yanked a string and the whole hook simply came away from the harness.

That unit was used for about a year and worked faultlessly both in simulated operation and also in race practice. It was used in the very first 29er Worlds in Italy, and also in the demanding arena of 18teens and 49ers.

About this time Julian decided that it fulfilled all the requirements, it was a very good product and it should be taken further. He thought about it very hard and incorporated another couple of ideas to get in and out of it. It was also modified so that if you were in trouble, you hit one of three purpose-made alloy extrusions in a particular manner and not only the hook would come off but the whole buckle would come apart and you would simply step out of the entire belt.

The dies where ordered and a provisional patent process started.

It was also about this time that Bethwaite loaned the harness to a friend because he had forgotten his. It came back a week later and the entire mechanism had been taped up to render it completely inoperative. In much the same way as sailors tape up their hobbles on a Soling, even though it is a patently stupid thing to do, this sailor had rendered the whole purpose of the buckle completely pointless.

So Julian cancelled the patent and the dies!

Pinning down the evolution of the keyball system is harder but it can be safely stated that it evolved quite quickly. The entire buckle system lends a lot of its design to the previous 'pull pin system' but is obviously fundamentally different.

The original buckles were made from a rough mould in chop strand matt and the ball was simply on a loose bit of line. The refinement to the present design has taken place painstakingly in real life sailing experiences. Bethwaite has learnt not to do the testing himself because he can always accommodate imperfections, especially in his own designs! Other sailors who are not so intimately involved with the process are a better gauge of its performance as they can be far more critical and brutal with something that is 'not quite right'. Certainly Tai Elliot has been by far the most long-suffering test pilot.

The entire system has now been in operation for well over two years. Although evolution and refinements have certainly meant that the system has been perfected over that time, the purity of the original concept is such that the original carbon buckle which was made in South Africa 18 months ago is still being used.

An interesting side line was when a Velcro system was incorporated with the keyball, again it did not work in practise because either the ends were tied in so well that not only did they not snag, they were nearly impossible to release, or they did release.

Other defining times are when Bethwaite took one of the original carbon buckles around the world in May 2001, showing the idea to people in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and ending up in Canada with Ian Bruce who approved it.

The system has now been in the patent process for over two years.

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