You are not allowed to touch the spar with your hands, hence the difficulty of holding a difficult position.

When a man begins to waver the other redoubles his attack, and slowly at first, but surely, the defeated gladiator tumbles off the spar into a canvas stretched several feet below.

It is lots of fun, especially for the spectator and the winner.
Then, of course, there were other feats of intellectual and physical prowess in the _Woermann_ competition, such as threading the needle, where you run across the deck, thread a needle held by a woman, and then drag her back to the starting point.

The woman usually, in the excitement of the last spirited rush, falls over and is bodily dragged several yards, squealing wildly and waving a couple of much agitated deck shoes, and so forth.
Similar to this contest is the one where the gentleman dashes across the deck with several other equally dashing gentlemen, kneels at the feet of a woman who ties his necktie and then lights his cigarette.

The game is to see who can do this the quickest and get back to the starting place first.