Using mast steps video, please.

[Journeyman]

Does anyone have a link to a video that shows someone actually climbing their mast using fixed mast steps?

Hopefully, from the deck to the mast head in one uninterrupted video.

I want to gauge the degree of difficulty of this technique. Not interested in other techniques and products (mast ladders, ATN, block & tackle, etc. etc.)

Just want to see a mast climbed using fixed mast steps.

After 45 mins of searching on the web I cannot find one, yet there are thousands videos using other techniques and products. Strange.

Thank you,
J

[clownfishsydney]

I had them on my old yacht. Easy to climb, but used a safety line connected to spinnaker sheet.

[OldManMirage]

I don't have a video but I did have mast steps on my Catalina 27, and I have climbed steps on many other boats when I used to work for a yacht broker. In my opinion mast steps are absolutely the easiest and safest way to get up a mast. I always wore a safety harness attached to a halyard and had someone on deck to keep up with me.

I went up plenty of masts for that broker and I never liked being "winched" up. I was young enough and agile enough back then that I did most of the work myself by climbing the mast as they kept up tension on the halyard but I always felt much safer with steps. And being able to stand on the usual two steps at the top while working is way better than sitting in a bosun's chair.

[Benz]

The difficulty of mast steps will not be measurable with a video, since the greatest variable is the person climbing.
Watch a video of someone freesoloing a rock climb that the rest of us couldn't get up with a crane. Looks easy, because they're awesome.
If you're in decent shape, it will be dead easy to climb mast steps. Difficulty will increase with proportion to how far you've let your shape go.

[boatman61]

Climbed a 78ft mast using steps on a 65ft Laurent Giles using mast steps, apart from stopping for a breather at the 2nd spreader it was a doddle.. easiest way to ascend a mast, bar getting someone to winch you up in a bosuns chair.
Definitely quicker..

[winjamerk]

I believe I saw someone last night on YT (?Little Wing) on east coast of Australia climbing mast steps to get video pics of the sunset while his sailboat (?WS32?) appeared underway heading slowly toward anchorage.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Benz

The difficulty of mast steps will not be measurable with a video, since the greatest variable is the person climbing.
Watch a video of someone freesoloing a rock climb that the rest of us couldn't get up with a crane. Looks easy, because they're awesome.
If you're in decent shape, it will be dead easy to climb mast steps. Difficulty will increase with proportion to how far you've let your shape go.

Close to this variable will be the distance between the steps. I would think climbing a vertical ladder would be better to evaluate your level of difficulty instead of watching a video.

[boatman61]

Why bother with steps..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y4loB_UGxw8

[PuttingDoctor]

I have folding steps on both my main and mizen (Irwin 46’ ketch) I climb with a lineman’s belt.
It’s a process as each step needs to be unfolded ascending and then folded as you descend.
I have alternating steps but twins at each work station, spreader and masthead as I hate standing on one leg for extended periods.
Once in place I double wrap my belt lanyard and am able to comfortably lean back and be secure.
I purchased the lineman’s belt in the early 1980’s for security as I stood on helicopter skids shooting aerial / air to air photos. It has been a great tool since I started climbing masts 8 years ago.

[michaelratinter]

I have folding mast steps as others have mentioned. I installed them alternating at two foot intervals. I still climb my mast but, at age 75, but I stop and rest every five steps.

Two-foot spacing is too much.

[PippaB]

Doesn't give you the whole mast, but if you forward to 2:55 there's about 10 seconds of actually using the steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_hD4dJGUgM

[Russ]

I'm 74 years old and still climb my 65' mast to the top regularly using fixed mast steps to the lower shrouds and foldable ones tho the top. I use a Biron Toss riggers harness and safety belt. I'm clipped to the main halyard which is wrapped around a mast winch for security ONLY. I climb the mast, I'm NOT winched up. Yes, it's tiring but MUCH MUCH safer than all that other stuff.
Russ

[geoffr]

We have mast steps and they are very easy to use. It's like climbing a ladder with the exception that you need to get around the baby stay. The reason for this is you start climbing on the front side, but then the stay gets in the way so you have to move around it, or over the backside of the mast (which is what
I normally do). Either way much easier than any other way to get up the mast!

(sorry no video thou)

[AndyEss]

I had fixed mast steps installed at 18” intervals - 2ft intervals seem way too great. I regularly climb to my spreaders with dual safety clip on safety lines and a climbing harness. Any higher and I’d have a competent friend control the main halyard safety line around a winch. I just had my second hip replaced.
As long as you are not 35+ kg overweight and walk (or dance) regularly, should be no problem at all.

[Cpt Mark]

If you want to know if you can do it. Put a ladder, secured!! straight up and down and climb that.Mast steps will be a little bit different but not much