Good Morning and Happy MATBOCK Monday!
The BLS is a joint project between MATBOCK and MAS Special Ops Training. It’s a patent pending Bench, Ladder, Stretcher designed for Wing and Zodiac inflatable boats. The BLS is sold as a pair (bottom and upper sections) and designed to deploy as a unit. For the inflatables, it sits across the side tubes and can be secured to the floor with either ratchet straps or line (not included in the kit), giving space for 4 operators to sit forward facing during transit. When reaching the landing site or ship to be boarded, the sections can be attached together to create a 12 foot ladder with integrated shepherds hooks and offset ladder rungs. Additionally, the ladder rungs are coated on the top surface with nonslip to help prevent falls due to wet surfaces. If there is a casualty, a single section can be used as a stretcher to evacuate the individual as well. Four handles protrude from the sides to aid in transport as well as for positioning the ladder.
Each section is 69” tall, 17.5” wide, weighs 20.5 lbs and is made of aluminum with welded connections throughout the system. Additionally, the BLS comes with grip feet on the lower section to help prevent the bottom from kicking out while being used as a ladder.
Don’t forget to tune in on Monday at 4:30 PM EST as we go live to demo our BLS system!
My butt could have used these 30 years ago when I was bouncing around on ammo cans in the north Atlantic.
No kidding! Hurling your guts in the middle of the night, sea state 3, with gasoline sloshing around, while straddling the gunnel, speed cut in half bc the waves are too close together to get over 5 kts. Seats would have been nice!
Great idea! Not just 2 functions, but three!