wire main halyard going up the mast

[shellback]

hey all,

Hope your sailing has been great so far this year!

Hey, am curious, going up the mast with a bosun chair or top climber is common with all line halyards, however what if your main halyard is a combo (wire to line)???? Can it still support a full adult male? vertical load of a 200 lb male?

I'm wanting to go up to install the new lazy jacks and new flag lines attaching it to the spreaders.

Appreciate anyone's feedback
Mark

Has anyone ever gone up the mast in a bosun chair with a wire to line main halyard set-up? Will it be more secure ? Will it hold better?

I need to go up for a lazy jack installation and setting up two new flag lines attached to the spreaders.

Mark

[Vasco]

I've gone up with wire/rope halyard lots of times. Now that the running rigging is getting a bit old I always use two halyards. It all depends on the condition.

The first time I went up a mast it was on a rope/wire halyard. Just as I reached the top of the mast the splice broke.

Fortunetly I had rigged a seperate halyard to a seperate harness and only suffered from having my life flash before my eyes as I dropped the four inches of slack in the safety line.

EVERYTIME you go up a mast you should rig two lines in such a way that there is no one piece your life depends on. No shackle, no knot, no line, no block, no winch, no wire, no harness nor chair should be the only thing between you and the deck. If you go up in a bosun chair, your safety line should be tied to a seperate harness. If you go up in a "climbing harness" attach your safety line to a chest harness.

If you are short on deck crew to tend a second safety line, you can use a webbing strap that you wrap around the mast. If for some reason you fall, this will pull this tight and hold you. You will be very grateful for not hitting the deck, but unless you are part monkey, you will have the very devil of the time figuring out how to get down.

The only reason I can write these words of warning is because I did these things.

Bill

[S/V Elusive]

Having two halyards on a mast makes it a no-brainer for using one as a back-up/safety line. I use a 'top-climber' like arrangement for assending and returning (Bosun Chair). I use a figure 8 (any climbing / outdoors sports store should have one) attached to my harness with a lanyard. The secondary halyard should have some slack in it, to use the figure 8 correctly. You just have to remember to 'take it with you' as you go up or down ... it is a pain to have to 'go back' to move your safety line.

[GMac]

Your haylard would have more load with the sail cranked up than a bloke so it should be fine. Saying that I also always try to rig a second, just in case. Getting blood stains of the deck can be hard work and nobody wants that.

[cooper]

Yep, always two lines. I use a tree climbing harness that is more comfortable than the bossuns plank or bum cheek squeezing bag. I make a point of having a strop (short piece of rope) that I tie to somthing above me before I start any serious work. Even if this means going up a bit higher and then coming down. A bag is tied onto a rope that is atteached to my waist (or a foresail halyard) so that I can get bits put in it and haul it up to me by "the crew" without the hassel of going up and down. My biggest mast climbing effort however is in my boat that I am building. Tabernacle mounted mast. Dont go to the mast, bring the mast to you !!~Cock the boat on an angle to the jetty, lower the mast and work on your mast off the jetty !! Pure bloomin luxury.If l can raise and lower wind generator towers 5 times higher than my mast then ...........