Up the stick - bosun's chair

[Bolo]

Someone once said that death and taxes are a sure thing in life and I suppose for sailboat owners eventually having to go up the mast is too. I need to go up mine to remove a broken TV antenna (half-way up) and reapir a deck light. The antenna is hanging by the cable and needs to come down before it falls down. (We think it was broken off it's mount by the spinnaker halyard.)

Need to get a bosun's chair and will be trusting my wife to trail off the main and spinnaker halyards while I go up. I know to use two halyards, one on the chair and another on a body harness. I was going to wear my PFD which has big "D" rings on the front. I'm also planning on tying myself off to the halyard using a good peice of rope and a bowline and not trusting the halyard shakels.

My main concern is, can I damage the halyards with my weight. I come in at 200 lbs (wet) and I'm assuming that a typical halyard on a 32-3 (in good working order) can handle much more working load than 200 lbs.

Any thoughts or tips to pass on? Thanks

Bolo

 

[CaptnNero]

no bungee jumping

Look up your halyards in your handy (I know you have one) West Marine catalogue. A 1/2" halyard should be good for at least 9000 lbs.. As long as you aren't planning to bungee jump with it, you'll be snug.

While you are up there, please take a close look at everything. We once found the spinnaker halyard mount was loosing it's screws ! Paul's Shadowfox had some extra holes in the masthead (he posted a pix on that). Also, take a small messenger line with you for the things you forget to take.

Happy landing !

 

[Emerald]

Hi,


With no intention of downplaying your wife's abilities, do be sure she really is up to the task of hoisting you up. Somewhere between the spreaders and the top of the mast, I often find the poor sucker grinding the winch is a whole lot more tired than one would expect. You might want to trade positions and hoist her up. That said, my wife has no interest in mast climbing, and for some strange reason I get a cheap thrill out of going up the mast and look forward to it. As a result it's usually me and a friend on deck, and if I can find a second friend to tail the safety halyard, that's even better.

A final thought, if you don't have a Bosun's chair, get a good one. It makes such a difference on feeling comfortable and working easily. To me a good chair has a solid bottom, snug sides that grip you well, pockets you can put tools in and eyes you can tie off said tools. Here's a link to a picture of the chair I've got just for reference:

http://baconsails.com/ships_store/product_info.php?cPath=438&products_id=24369

click on the image to the right of the text and you'll get a decent pop-up of the sucker unfolded.

(no affiliation with Bacon's- just a long term happy customer)

BTW, bravo on your decision not to use the shackles! This is something I've pointed out to friends - my only halyard failure I ever had was at the halyard's end where the halyard had been spliced to the shackle. Tie a bowline and I think you are much safer.


Good luck!


-David
Independence 31
Emerald

 

[HGSail]

I bought a ATN Topclimber a couple of years ago and now I go up the mast a least once a year, Most of the time all by myself.(my weekend is mon. & tues.) So there is usually nobody around to help. If there is some body, they don't have to do very much work because I'm doing all the climbing. they just have to keep the slack out of the safety halyard. (mainhalyard)

Pat
E29
'73
#224
Holy Guacamole

 

[Mindscape]

Up the Mast

I go up my mast and have the same or similar boat to yours. I'm also in that '200 pound range' and never have a problem. Make sure your wife is up to cranking you up there, but sounds like you're only going halfway, which should be no problem. My wife tires our just as I approach the second spreaders. I take something to drink in one of the bosun chair pockets to have something while she rests! I like the solid seat chair, use a couple of halyards, one as a safety and use a bowline, then clip the shacles to the d ring on the chair. Not a big deal to go up, just be safe. Take a camera with you to take pictures of stuff up there and get a great shot of your boat looking down on it.

 

[Guy Stevens]

Life Aloft

Bosuns chairs are not my favorite. A good climbing harness purchased at REI or you local climbing store works much better for me. More secure etc.

You should never shackle into the lines, tie a figure 8 on a follow through instead (85-90% or rope strength.) Remember too that the 9000 pounds for the rope was on the day that it was made.... Not the day you use it.


YES do bungy jump on the line.... Have your hoister hoist you just until your toes are touching the deck, then cleat you off just like you would be if you were aloft. The jump up and land as hard as you can on the line. This will place about 1000-1500 pounds of shock load on the entire system. Or the same amount as if one of the wraps sliped off of the winch while you were up there. IF anything breaks GOOD, it could have broken when you were aloft and you could have fallen to your death..

Always go aloft with two lines, one primary, and one safety, both figure 8 with a follow through to either your bosuns chair or to your harness.

Brion Toss in his book "The Riggers Apprentice" has an entire chapter about going aloft, and has written a number of fine articles in sail and other mags about it. I highly recommend that you pop for the book!

I have seen people fall, and it can kill you. Being aloft is not something to be frightened of, but definately requires respect, and attention to safety.

Guy

 

[Sean Engle]

Harness by Brion Toss...

I used the harness by Brion Toss - see this thread:

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=2092

//sse

 

[wurzner]

With no disrepect to your wife's abilities or any of the females on this list, don't have her do it. More importantly, you should have 2 people down there if none of them have done this task. I have made at least 5 trips to the top of our stick on the 38 due to a faulty transducer on a new wind machine (thought it was wiring) and would not trust this to just one person who was inexperianced. I will say that most of my trips were with only one person, but he is my rock climbing partner. If it isn't him, I have two folks down there each working a halyard. I've taken some significant falls climbing and can tell you, bouncing into spreaders or the deck from even 5 feet can be extremely dangerous, if not DEADLY. Something about 9.8 meters per second squared! I'm sure you can find someone else at the dock to work a second line. I'm sure you wife can do it, but is it really worth the risk? I have not fear of going up the mast, it's the abrupt ride down that is the scary part. Also, while I agree with Guy in principle about the security of a harness, the chair is the way to go if you are going to be up there for any time. I used a harness for one of my ascents and I wish I hadn't. When rock climbing, you are very rarely supported by the harness (hopefully never!). Having all your weight in the harness for any duration of time will compromise your circulation and will hurt like hell for a few days afterwards. If your only up for a few minutes, ok, but be perpared for feeling it for a while after.

Good luck and be save...find a second person.

shaun

 

[Guy Stevens]

Also, while I agree with Guy in principle about the security of a harness, the chair is the way to go if you are going to be up there for any time. I used a harness for one of my ascents and I wish I hadn't. When rock climbing, you are very rarely supported by the harness (hopefully never!). Having all your weight in the harness for any duration of time will compromise your circulation and will hurt like hell for a few days afterwards. If your only up for a few minutes, ok, but be perpared for feeling it for a while after.

shaun

I should eloborate, for short trips any climbing harness will do. However if you are new at this, it isn't ever going to be a short trip, it is going to take you a while to get things going. My harness is a instructors climbing harness with a lot of padding on all the parts that touch the body, about a million times better at not cutting off circulation than any bosuns chair that I have been in. Brion's harness are excellent, and are much much more comfortable than a bosuns chair. In addition you can move a lot better in them. This actualy makes it faster to get work done when you are up there. A bosuns chair will definately work if you are only doing this occasionally, but if you are doing it as a professional, the harness solution is a lot better. Get an instructor, style harness they are padded for sitting in and talking to people.

Brions is great. www.briontoss.com
You could also try http://www.robertson-mtn.com/seat_harness.html the industerial seat harness with the padding kit is quite comfotable.
CMC also produces a padded harness which is good and comfortable.
(Just to note, I have done rigging in each of the above...)

Also do a search for search and rescue harness, and linemans harness on google. You will find some great stuff there, made for people that sit in these things all day.

The difference between the search and rescue / instructor harness and a standard climbing harness is precisely what Sean was talking about the standard climbing harness is made to be light, small, and only take your weight when you fall. The instructor / Search and rescu harness is made to be sat in all day long.

Guy

 

[Sean Engle]

...I used a harness for one of my ascents and I wish I hadn't. When rock climbing, you are very rarely supported by the harness (hopefully never!). Having all your weight in the harness for any duration of time will compromise your circulation and will hurt like hell for a few days afterwards...

Further on Guy's comment - the Toss harness is nothing like climbers harnesses - except in function (somewhat, I guess). The Toss harness is much wider and padded and you can adjust the position of the leg straps while you're up. It also has all the attaching points and stuff you need for tool bags, etc.

I adjusted and painted all four of my spreaders using the Toss harness - and stayed up (at the longest period - the two uppers) for almost three hours - until after the sun went down to finish my project. I found it to be very comfortable - you can stretch out and not worry at all about falling - and instead focus on the task at hand.

Plus, since you're surrounded by the rig, you can lead back, upside down to look at the undersides of things, etc - and there is no risk of falling, etc. With the rig I set up, I could climb up by myself and let myself down as well - and have a safety line with an ascender on it that followed me up like a puppy.

Try the Toss harness - you'll never go back to a bosun's chair...

//sse

 

[Tom Metzger]

I envy you guys with the wives that will crank you up the mast , but I found a low cost ($50, less when on sale) drill motor with a bit that fits the winch a much better option.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=7426

It doesn't work well if the winch drive in high power (low speed) turns CCW. Attaching the chuck to the shaft with red Lactate will improve this aspect. Other wise it may break the screw that holds the chuck onto the shaft when operating in reverse.

I always lead the halyard to the primary winch to ease the load.

 

[Chris Miller]

afraid of heights...

I'm deathly afraid of heights... So my wife goes up. We always use her hot-rod harness (she's the "fly guy" of choice on our 38-200, a Farr 395, Antrim 27, S2, etc...) and I crank her on a halyard with a knot and safety with another body with another knot and a third body spotting. We've found that bosuns chairs are for light bulb replacement. Spend the $100 and be safe, and the $20 on beer for the extra bodies involved--- just don't let them drink it until after...
Chris

 

[Gary G]

All quiet on deck

If this is your first trip up the mast it's worth advising your helpers on deck to stand in one place and not move about while you're aloft. What seems like the slightest motion on deck is greatly exaggerated at the top of the mast and can turn your trip up into an amusement park ride! Good luck.

 

[footrope]

Another thought for your grinders benefit

I went up the mast today twice. I used my red & blue bosun's chair for the first time. I have been up with a regular climbing harness and agree with the sentiment that you have to be in pretty good shape to use one comfortably. Or maybe there's a technique we haven't caught on to yet. I know a guy who could climb a mast with bare hands and boat shoes, so there's several different ways to elevate yourself. (I know, I know, but he only went to the first spreader.)

This time though, instead of using the cabin top main halyard winch, I re-routed the main halyard to the starboard primary winch. This made the grinders job very much easier and I didn't feel so bad about the fact that I can't help with hands and feet as much as someone who is in better shape than me.

This certainly may not work on all boats, but my friend and I feel quite good about the results on my E38, so I thought I would share it on this thread. I unstrung the main halyard from the clutch, deck organizer and the block at the base of the mast. My main halyard comes off on the starboard side and will go straight from the mast to a snatch block at the main shroud U-bolt. Then I add another snatch block at the aft lower shroud U-bolt (for safety) and run through the jib block to the winch. Very fair leads at every point. Four wraps on the winch and you're set to go. You can get full turns and be well braced at the primary winch compared to the halyard winch. My 150 lb. friend/grinder reported that it was very easy to haul me up. My primaries are Barient 32s - which is important because smaller boats will not have a winch that large.

We did use a secondary safety line, the spare jib halyard, which will route to the main halyard winch. My friend was able to keep up with that without moving more than a step.

The reason for going aloft was to fix a burned out anchor light. It turned out to be a corroded contact, so I didn't have to buy a lamp, but I didn't have a spare, so now I have the part no. and have bought a spare. While I was there I also inspected everything, lubed the sheaves, and lubed the mainsail track on the way down the second time.

I'll put in a plug for the design of the AquaSignal 40 series masthead light that the PO put up there. It has a tri-color above an anchor light and the entire plastic dome comes off without tools. It has a 1/4 turn locking collar at the bottom. The lamps are 25W and 10W and are large - making them easy to handle.

I also borrowed a climbers ladder (Etrier) made of webbing, and one ascender (jumar) so that I could stand up to see over the masthead. I needed to measure voltages and then clean the contacts a little. The bosun's chair isn't much good for seeing the top of the mast and the Etrier was just the ticket.

I will stick with the chair, but maybe I could hook up with someone around here with Brion Toss's harness and give it a try?

 

[CaptnNero]

webbing ladder

As Craig suggested, going up the mast is best done by the climber actively climbing and the people at the winches mostly taking up slack. I even saw one wirery surveryor go all the way up the shrouds on an E32 almost as fast as his partner could pull the slack on the safety halyard. The climber wore sneakers and leather gloves.

A few years ago I picked up a webbing ladder with glides to fit into the mainsail track, raised by a halyard. Now I can climb relatively easily on the webbing and I "highly" recommend it . It does take a little practice to get your foot into the floppy webbing. We found that it helps to tie the base of the ladder to the shrouds on both sides to help hold the webbing steps open.

It only takes a minute to remove the mainsail from the track, and a little longer to re-install it later. That's time well spent compared to trying to shinny up the mast while the grinders try to help.

Before someone asks, I bought the ladder at a consignment shop and the manufacturer (Captain Al?) is out of business. Safetywise that made me a little nervous at first, but I realized that I was only going to use it climb and for safety and I'd still have the halyard and another line that I looped around the mast to lean against.

 

[Glyn Judson]

Getting all the way to the top and then some.

All, I recentrly had my mast rebuilt and took the opportunity to drill the mast for four Fasteps I bought from Alfred Gilbert" <ahgent@earthlink.net> years ago. He's a clever designer of safety gear for boats and may well be making them even today. I bought them in 2002 from him. These Fasteps are removable steps for temporary use in conjunction with a conventional boatswains chair or for use all the way up a mast for that matter. They work on the same principle as the tool holders used on workshop peg boards. They're made from 1/4" stainless rod and shaped to hook into two 1/4" holes drilled horizontally into the side of the mast at different intervals. I bought only four of them and can now use them spaced at 16" inrtervals with two opposite one another 48" from the top of the mast for comfortably standing on while at work over the top of the mast. One more set of only two holes for just one step are drilled 64" from the top on the port side and another set are drilled 80" down on the starboard side for another single step. Sd to be able to work over the mast top, one ascends in the normal manner but with these four steps along for the ride. First one is fitted at 80", then the other at 64" and finally the last two 48" from the top. At this point one exits the chair after having fitted a safety belt around the mast and the climber. When the work above is done, it's a simple matter of stepping down into the chair and taking the steps with you as you decend. They're darned well made with a stop on the outer edge of the footrest to prevent slipping off the side and a reinforcing strut under the step at a 45 degree angle that levers against the mast. Again, the entire step and strut is made from formed stainless steel rod. They're pretty cool. Glyn

 

[Captron]

Going Up?

I too have wrestled with the mast climbing thing over the years and as usual I have a few opinions. I've been up a lot with friends helping but we really need a way for just me and the wife to get my lard butt up there.

I bought and tried the ATN thingy but found it too exhausting to use. It's one thing to climb a bow string taut climbing line that's entirely clear of obstacles for the 6 or 8ft as demonstrated at the boat shows, it's entirely something else on a rocking boat with a 40ft mast... you can't get the climbing line tight enough and the mast is constantly in the way ... sold it ...

Then I saw a professional rigger going up a mast by himself. He used a climbing harness and a 3:1 block and tackle rigged with harken hexaratchet fiddle blocks. He was also a fairly small and wiry type and obviously in great shape. Me, I'm 60, just at 6ft tall (or used to be) and 200lbs ... anyway, I took his idea and rigged a 4:1 tackle with a Harken hexaratchet fiddle block and I lead this back to a primary winch along the deck. The wife then uses the self tailing primary and grinds away ... pretty easy going for her plus I can help by hauling on the running part ... the hexaratchet allows me to hold my position with just a couple of fingers... now I get pretty tired hauling myself up but with the wife helping, it's not a problem. I've been up and down several times with this rig now and the only improvement I would make is to replace the bosun's chair with a climbing harness. The chair tends to compress my chest if I don't stand off the mast ...

Anyway, that works for us. Now a question about another thought I had.

I'm in the process of planning a power windlass install ... how about mounting a horizontal shaft windlass with winch drum in the anchor well and leading a halyard to it for going up the mast? A couple of wraps and the wife could tail and operate a foot switch ...

My resistance to this idea has been that in case of an over-ride or other windlass issue, my wife might not be able to solve the problem, leaving my sorry butt hanging. However, if the lifting halyard was led through a modern sheet stopper ... maybe mast mounted ... and kept closed, the line would feed through in the lifting direction but would be stopped off in case of premature release. This would add a measure of safety and allow tension on the winch drum to be released in order to clear a jam or whatever.

Hmmm, now that I think about it, how about a small caged platform or large fiberglass bucket fitted into the main sail luff groove ... just climb in and voila! powered elevator to the top of the mast ... maybe with a wireless remote ... always wanted a boat with an elevator ...

What do you think guys and gals ... seriously now ... about powering up with the windlass?

Capt Ron
E38 Kismet

 

[CaptnNero]

Nigel's no-no

Nigel Calder recommends when using a windlass to move the boat with the boat motor, not the windlass, and to remove the anchor with the boat motor, not the windlass. He says to minimize loaded time on the windlass motor and keep it from heating up. I think that addresses your mast climbing application; you windlass lifespan will be shortened by using it for your hoist. Even a properly used halyard winch probably does get much load until near the top.

Of course, Nigel doesn't address oveloading your spouse versus overloading the windlass. That is a judgement only you can make.

...
What do you think guys and gals ... seriously now ... about powering up with the windlass?

Capt Ron
E38 Kismet