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Hunting for tools, parts, nuts, and bolts can be tricky aloft, so the tool pockets (if any) and their placement were closely scrutinized. A provision for a downhaul, which can be secured by an assistant below to prevent the chair from swinging, or to run up spare parts, is also desirable. It should allow you to be hoisted as near as possible to the top of the mast.

If a bosuns chair is well designed, with good straps and support, it should be impossible or nearly so to slip, tip, or fall out. The column labeled “Comfort” on the table is key because it includes not only the cushiness factor, but the feeling of security it gave testers as they watched the world below grow smaller. The ratings in the table on page 11 reflect the combined results of all tests. Finalists were also field tested aboard the 28-foot Precision, Just Karma, which conveniently needed a new windvane at the mast top. For field testing, a tester sat in each chair for 15 minutes while aloft and simulating a common repair task using a screwdriver and drill. Based on the stitching and material inspections by the staff at Knighton, we ranked chairs according to overall construction quality. For this, we enlisted the help of the experts at Knighton Sails, a sailmaking and rigging service in Sarasota, Fla., owned by Sarasota sailor Gregg Knighton. The first step of the evaluation was to compare construction quality, materials, and methods.

Included in this test were products from ATN, a small but well-established company that launched in 1985 Brion Toss, a renowned rigger based in Washington Black Diamond, an outdoors sports company that caters to skiers and climbers Harken, the well-known maker of sailing hardware and apparel Plastimo, a French maker of a wide range of yacht equipment and Spinlock, a British company that specializes in deck hardware and personal safety gear. Although our comparison doesn’t encompass every chair on the market, it includes most of the major players and presents a telling cross-section of the three major design types: climbing harness, the conventional open “swing” seat, and solid-back “diaper” type. Updating a topic that was last fully examined in 1993, Practical Sailor recently took a look at nine different bosun chairs and bosun chair alternatives to determine which ones are worth recommending to the sailor facing a repair project high above the deck and which ones wed drop into the nearest dumpster. The world is divided into two types of sailors: Those who have no qualms scrambling up the ratlines to replace a bad anchor light, and the acrophobic among us who hoist an all-around white LED in the rigging and call it fixed.