Best way to safely climb my mast

[boeing1]

one other note, instead of replacing your anchor blub, suggest replace it with a LED light assy.

[ALAIN97133]

Originally Posted by roverhi

I'm 70 years old and have been using the ATN sourced Mast Climber to climb the stick for going on 5 years. I'm not in great shape and a few more pounds overweight than I'd like. It is not effortless to climb the mast with the Mast Climber but something that I've done many times, 7 times to the mast head in one day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoy6PrjJW0o

[barnaclejim]

As many have said you need to get used to going and being aloft. When you need to go up it may not be in a marina where its calm and no wind. If you just have a climbing harness you can carry a looped line about 3 feet long. at the top of your mast drape it over and between the rig then step into it and you will have better access to the top. We use both a bosuns chair and a climbing harness. The bosuns chair is more comfortable for work that takes and hour or more. For quick trip up the harness is nice and gives you a lot more maneuverability, but after 30 min my legs start going to sleep. Often on smaller boats the mast winches are too small to have your crew or spouse hoist you up without several rest stops. If you are going to use a bosuns chair I would recommend getting a bigger winch on your stick. something to practice a lot so you are prepared when and if you need to

[Jim Cate]

I am amused by the suggestions that you should install mast steps to climb your mast! I've done that job, and there are two ways to do it: unstep mast and attach steps while the mast is lying on the trestles, or hang from a bosun's chair while drilling lots of holes and either tapping threads or popping rivets to hold the steps. Hardly seems an effective means of replacing your anchor light!

The steps are nice to have, but a bosun's chair and a halyard mean that you can do it today if you want to.

Jim

[thinwater]

Notes on Mast Mate:

a. The rigger that did the survey on my current boat used a Mast Mate. Didn't ask him why.

b. The Mast Mate does NOT need to be rigged in the track using slugs. So long as you can tension with a halyard winch there is no need and it does not help. I have never used the slugs with my current boat.

Also, I find rubber coated gardening gloves can makes climbing easier, particularly if things are rolly (always some joker with a wake); they grab on to slippery masts better than sweaty hands.

[gjordan]

I just watched the ATN Mastclimber video, and would think that would be a very dangerous practice out at sea with a rolling boat. It also has all of the disadvantaged of the single line and single attachment point that a conventional bosuns chair has. I have had to change out a headstay 1000 miles from shore, and I was so very glad that I had installed mast steps. Being a devout coward when it comes to pain, I went up on the steps, with a halyard attached to my safety harness, and my safety harness lanyard being moved every 2 steps as I went up. It took a couple of minutes to go up, but I was attached by 3 points at any given time. If I had been swinging around in a bosuns chair, or an ATN, it could have been a disaster. I installed mast steps on all three of my cruising boats , and will if I ever get my next boat. When I lived aboard in Sausalito in the 70s, I was told of two people that fell from the masthead from halyard failure. One landed flat on his back and was bounced overboard with no serious injury, and the other fellow was in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. I have gone to the top in a bosuns chair (in harbor) but it scares the hell out of me. PAY YOUR DIME AND TAKE YOUR CHANCES!!!!! _____Grant.

[MainMan]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

Best way to safely climb my mast

Send someone else up.


No, really, the best and safest way to go up a mast, IMHO, is with mast steps. I know because i've had to climb the mast on every 'big' boat i've owned EXCEPT the one on which I had installed mast steps. Installing mast steps is almost a guarantee that you will never find a reason to go up your mast. It makes me think that the best way to guarantee you will live forever is to buy a life insurance policy on yourself.

On my last boat I made a 'mast mate'. You can buy them for a couple of hundred bucks at Mast Mate Home. For about $5 less I built my own. Works great. You should remove your mainsail so you can use the track slides that come with it, worthwhile because it holds the mast mate close to the mast, keeps it, and you, from swaying in the wind. Not as good as real mast steps but it does allow you to go up and down and stay up high enough to easily work at the top. With no help.

I've also gone up - and down - in my bosuns chair. A real work of art that probably cost hundreds when it was built. The PO had it set up so he could haul himself up and down with the aid of a 3 or 4 part tackle. I had some linebacker friends do the hard work. Good for doing work on the way up the mast but troublesome working at the top. And I once helped haul a guy up his mast in a chair by using his electric windlass to do the work.

As for the mountain climbing gear, well, you better be in good shape.....

So by installing steps, I'll never need to climb up there? Kinda like lighting a smoke while waiting for a cab -to hurry up the bus - you light a cigi / or washing the car for more rain!! Ha Ha

[gjordan]

Something to keep in mind if you decide to install mast steps , is to run a continuos light line on the outside of the steps, all the way to the top. I think I used 100lb mono-filament that I seized to the outside of each step. This will make halyard snags very rare. Before I learned that, I had several problems reefing at night. Just a thought. ______Grant.

[Mike OReilly]

I use the ATN climber package, although I know you could assemble the same for cheaper by going to a mountain climbing source. As out of shape as I am, I can fairly easily get up and down our 50-foot mast while at the dock. Actually, I find coming down the hardest b/c you can get yourself locked up if you overestimate your personal flexibility.

I've yet to climb the mast underway, but I imagine it would be hell. I doubt any option (climber, bosuns chair or steps) would be very good in a wildly swinging sea state. In all cases you'd have to be snugged tightly to the mast.

[a64pilot]

Are there folding mast steps?

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Mast Climber, Top Climber or make up your own using mountain climbing gear.

as an exmountaineer and rock climber i use my climbing gear.

but not this year as need to go up and replace radar reflectors an fix deck light but shoulder surgery will prohibit that.

will have to hire someone to do it.

[jeepbluetj]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Are there folding mast steps?

Yes. Sea-Dog Folding Mast Step as a example.

I've been thinking about a mast-mate, but using rigid rungs 'cause the soft loops look painful.

Bosun's chair and a grinder on a winch have worked for me so far, but I'd like something more stable and easier to work on the top.

[GILow]

Just wanted to add to this discussion that I read a horror story somewhere about a wife winching her husband up the mast using a power winch. Things went very, very wrong. She lost an arm, a bystander lost fingers, and it is a miracle her husband was not killed. It was enough to make me think I would never use a power winch, though one of those angle drill arrangements makes sense.


Matt

[Lancerbye]

Years ago I installed folding mast steps which I rarely use. I prefer a boson's chair and I have an electric winch when I have an extra hand around it's easy. In the past few years I have rigged a 12 volt atv winch and a 12 automotive power source that I attach to my boson's chair. I free wheel the winch line to the top of the mast with a spare halyard and then ride the boson's chair up and down using the remote control. I have been up and down many times since then. Mast is 55 ft.

[thinwater]

a. Any climbing method--winch, MastMate, ATN--can be secured against swinging with a tight line. Common sense folks. Mast steps, in the opinions of most, present a much greater broken rib risk.

b. A back-up is practical with all climbing methods. That folks bungle it is not the fault of the method. I don't blame traffic accidents on cars.

c. Every sailor should be competent with more than one method. Conditions change. I've been winched, used steps, used climbing gear and MastMate, climbed up the shrouds, and even shinnied up the mast 50'. Always with a back-up.