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Old 23-07-2017, 17:10   #1
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Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

So I thought it'd be fun to hoist my GoPro up the mast using my spare spinnaker halyard. Once I got it up there, I realized I had no way of getting it back down because I didn't tie a line or it or anything. Now I have a GoPro stuck 50 ft in the air.

I don't own a bosun's chair, but have been thinking of buying one for actual problems (not just when I'm a big doofus). Problem is that my spinnaker halyard was my only spare halyard, so now I don't have a spare halyard to send someone up the mast with. I do have a free slot in the mast (I have in-mast furling) but no halyard to use and no way of attaching it at the top of the mast to begin with.

Are there ways to climb the mast safely without having a spare halyard? Any other ideas for retrieving the bitter end of this line? Feeling pretty right now.
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Old 23-07-2017, 17:23   #2
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

Ooops. You can use the main halyard to go up of course. I dont usually use a back up halyard, but rather use a webbing strap (safety tether) that I secure around the mast with an overlapping hitch so it will bind of I load it up (like if the main halyard breaks). The tether also has a caribeener on the end so I can hitch to rigging as appropriate. I like this approach because I have control of it. The eye on the other end is hitched to the D ring on my bosun's chair.

Dont be a doofus aloft...potentially fatal combination...maybe send someone up with more experience.
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Old 23-07-2017, 17:53   #3
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

Buy a drone with a claw?

Damn, I need to patent that!

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Old 23-07-2017, 18:23   #4
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

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Buy a drone with a claw?

Damn, I need to patent that!

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Too late
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Old 23-07-2017, 18:26   #5
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

Don't you have a genoa halyard? I think your boat is likely fractional rigged, but the genoa halyard would get you near enough to grab the errant camera with a boat hook or other long pole.

Alternative is to raft up to a boat with a taller rig, go up his mast and do the fishing with a long pole. Or perhaps use a nearby bridge as a platform (years ago a chap used the road bridge at Santa Cruz to unstep a mast... without permission... but no one could figure out what law he had broken so he was not charged, just castigated!)

BTW, bet you won't do that again!

Good luck with the retrieval.

Jim
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Old 23-07-2017, 18:42   #6
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

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Too late
Really?



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Old 23-07-2017, 18:56   #7
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

This may be the first GoPro awarded the Darwin Award.
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Old 23-07-2017, 18:56   #8
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

Tie a boat hook to the second halyard. Set a downhaul online on the second halyard. And set a third light line, kind of like one of those dog catcher poles with a slip knot at the end. Basically you are making one of these. Click image for larger version

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Old 23-07-2017, 19:00   #9
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

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This may be the first GoPro awarded the Darwin Award.
We are all boneheads at least once a day...

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Old 23-07-2017, 19:13   #10
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

LOL LOL LOL

Buy/borrow a bosuns chair, drop the headsail and use it's halyard.

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Old 23-07-2017, 19:29   #11
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

The captain is not impressed.

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Old 23-07-2017, 19:39   #12
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?



Just walk up there and get it. lol
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Old 23-07-2017, 19:49   #13
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

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Don't you have a genoa halyard? I think your boat is likely fractional rigged, but the genoa halyard would get you near enough to grab the errant camera with a boat hook or other long pole.

Alternative is to raft up to a boat with a taller rig, go up his mast and do the fishing with a long pole. Or perhaps use a nearby bridge as a platform (years ago a chap used the road bridge at Santa Cruz to unstep a mast... without permission... but no one could figure out what law he had broken so he was not charged, just castigated!)

BTW, bet you won't do that again!

Good luck with the retrieval.

Jim
You're right, I could reach it from the genoa halyard, though I was hoping not to have to drop that sail to do the job. I think that's going to be my best bet for a retrieval. Time to go shop for a bosun's chair...
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Old 23-07-2017, 19:56   #14
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

Sounds like my seldon mast. I have a H380. Drop your main and have somebody winch you up. I put a 7/16 utility halyard in the spare sheeve at the top of my mast. I have it run through a block at the bottom of the mast and hangs from a cleat but long enough to go from the waterline to a winch in the cockpit. I keep it shackled to a starboard turnbuckle and the spinnaker halyard shacked to the port. I keep a spool of 1/4" braid in the lazzarete to attach. Like the bottom of my big flag for the 4th
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Old 24-07-2017, 08:47   #15
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Re: Hoisted a GoPro, Can't Get It Down. Now What?

Quote:
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LOL LOL LOL

Buy/borrow a bosuns chair, drop the headsail and use it's halyard.

Best idea yet.

What goes up must come down!

I've considered using a POV camera mounted to my main sail headboard or a spare when not under sail. Downhaul is key but you know that now. Hindsite is 20/20.
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