Kinleven Ltd
Kinleven Marine Yacht Ladders Yacht Mast Ladders made to measure, high quality with a 5 year guarantee. A bespoke service making ladders to fit your mast.
08/09/2022
High emotions as the moment arrives
08/09/2022
Pat Lawless and Kinleven Marine
Just one month before the start of the Golden Globe Race 2022, we received an enquiry from Pat's Team Manager Philip Galvin. Could we make a made-to-measure mast ladder for Green Rebel in time? Our answer was of course, “Yes we can!”
We also decided to offer the ladder, safety line, harness, and pole strap in sponsorship. It seemed to us a relatively modest offer, considering the cost of entering the GGR and everything needed for a chance of completing it. So, we didn't quite expect Pat and Philip’s hearty reactions.
As Pat put it on the eve of his 9-month epic voyage, after 4 years preparing in every way possible, the last remaining question on his mind was, how would he climb the mast solo at sea if he had to? He’d left it till last, and, without an answer, it had been worrying him. Having the solution now onboard Green Rebel was a weight off his mind. He’d hoisted and climbed it and he loved how easy it was, and how well made it is.
That same question was still being debated within at least one other entrant’s team even after the race had started. Two of the 16 sailors in the race had opted for fixed mast steps, but many don’t like the compromises involved: windage, potential chaffing inside and outside the mast, and to the integrity of the mast, threatened by so many holes drilled for fixings.
Pat's view was expressed in a podcast interview with Tom MacSweeney for Afloat.ie
"I'm sailing a Saltram Saga 36. I picked the boat for safety... I have a shorter mast than the Rustlers, and a heavier boat, so I need more wind, but it will suit the Southern Ocean... “
”So, the mast is everything to me. The mast is the most vulnerable part of the boat. The five boats that sank in the last race all sank because they lost their masts."
Pat has reinforced his mast and added extra stays in anticipation of wind and seas he knows from his years as an Atlantic fisherman sailing from the west of Ireland.
Pat and Philip invited us, now as Official Sponsors, to see Pat off at the start of the race at Les Sables d'Olonne on the Atlantic Coast of France on 4th September.
This also gave me the opportunity to brief Pat on the ladder and best arrangements for safety lines and safety harness for climbing solo. We also went through the easiest way to pack the ladder again after use.
As it turned out, the safety part was filmed by Seán Mac an tSithigh of RTE News covering Pat’s story.
The welcome we received from Pat, Philip and arguably the warmest and noisiest group of family, friends, sponsors, and supporters at the event, was extraordinary.
The send-off was emotional and deeply moving, and finally, one by one, each skipper cast off and filed line astern out of the harbour, to applause from all.
As I write this, Pat is a frontrunner, but with a very long way to go. The way he talked about the race, and everything about him and his approach, says he knows this is no sprint. The most important thing is to finish safely and come back.
Like Pat, we hope his Kinleven Marine Mast Ladder will stay in his locker until he gets back.
We wish him fair winds and the luck of the Irish all the way, and nothing up his mast that’ll need fixing. And, like Pat, we're happier knowing he has the best and safest means of going up and working aloft if he needs it.
https://patlawless.com/
If you’d like to join us in supporting Pat’s courageous and determined venture to be the first Irish person to complete the GGR, he has a page running at:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/ggr22-sail-solo-unassisted-around-the-world
and a fundraising page for Parkinson’s Ireland
https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/PatLawless
08/09/2022
Kerry sailor begins quest to complete non-stop solo world trip A Kerry sailor has begun his quest to become the first Irish person to complete the legendary Golden Globe Race. Pat Lawless is among a field of 16 internati...
08/09/2022
Kerry sailor begins quest to complete solo world trip A Kerry sailor has begun his quest to become the first Irish person to complete the legendary Golden Globe Race.
Mast Climbing, Drama, Batten Cars and Furling Systems
There are lots of mast climbing videos online, even a viral for Hugo Boss that’s well worth watching. Why?
It's probably to do with jeopardy and drama, the essentials of story telling and movie making. Drama is exactly what some of us don't want when something needs fixing aloft. When wind and wave are providing all our hoped-for challenge and adventure, breath-taking views are quite enough in the way of mast climbing drama.
An easy climb up, a solid foothold to work from, preferably hands free, and an easy climb down is the ideal. Something to take the drama out of routine maintenance. A way not to have to wait for a windless, flat-calm day, or for competent crew, in whose skill on the winch you must trust your life. In more pressured situations, all the same points apply.
Mast steps are favoured by some and undoubtedly convenient, but many owners don't like the compromises that come with them. And when you add up the costs of good quality folding steps, and fitting them, many owners are understandably tempted to look elsewhere for a solution. Good mast ladders are easy to climb up and down again, and are almost as convenient. They use the mast itself to provide stability, in most cases using sail slides in the luff groove, and are hoisted by main halyard or a spare. Some have solid rungs, easy to grip, comfortable to stand on and work from, and are not so far apart you have to struggle up and fumble your way down. They involve no messing with the integrity of the mast, and a much less eye-watering cost.
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