Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Harbormaster Phil Benner tested new escape ladders at the Small Boat Harbor Monday afternoon, by jumping in fully clothed.

Benner said he wanted to replicate the experience a boater who fell overboard. He swam about 30 feet from a finger to a ladder location at the edge of a float, where he was able to pull himself up. “It works,” he said.

The ladders are important because the wooden floats installed there in recent years sit higher in the water than the previous, cement floats, making them more difficult to climb up on, Benner said.

Sixteen ladders were paid for with $1,200 from the Richard Boyce Memorial Fund, and a matching contribution by the Haines Borough.

Other options for boaters who fall in at the harbor might include swimming to shore or climbing up a line attached to a vessel, said assistant harbormaster Mark Allen.

Harbor personnel also recently rebuilt two work floats there, adding new, plastic-encased Styrofoam bases and resurfacing splintered deck timbers with smooth, painted marine plywood.