How Do You Climb the Mast ??

[jkindredpdx]

Depends on what you are worried about failing. I assume you're solo climbing... I use my climbing rope attached to the halyard and run the halyard up to the top of the mast. As backup, I'd use the taut topping lift with both ends secured on deck at the foot of the mast and another prusik from your chest harness to it.

I don't have asceders so I actually run my rope through double blocks and hoist myself up in a bossun's chair with chest harness backup.

[Sabbatical II]

I have mast steps so it's easy as. I use a climbing ascender attatched a spare halyard as my safety if I slip off a mast step. I can therefore do it by myself with ease. Can't think of a good reason to complicate it any more than that, unless you don't have mast steps.

[susswein]

If you choose the right material and number of turns a prussik on the mast *will* catch and serve as a decent backup. It's not as good as a separate line, but it's better than nothing. To maximize friction try using a really supple webbing, like supertape.

[Jd1]

Originally Posted by cruisingdog

Now to answer you about the jib halyard. It looks like there is a spindle at the top where the roller furled jib is anchored to the masthead. The jib halyard is tied into the anchor. I will verify this but this is my understanding from the guy who installed it - but he can't remember exactly what he did (he's the co-owner of the boat and did this job when the boat wasn't ours!!).

Based on my furler:
You have the furling drum and associated hardware on the bow. Following that is the rigid foil section of the furler that has the slot for the sail in it. This section rotates to furl/unfurl the sail. Then you have a top assembly - it slides up and down the furler (over top of the foil), the top of the jib is attached to it on one side and the halyard is attached on the other side. Following that is a bearing of some kind to let the furler rotate and the other end of the bearing is attached to the mast top (via a short cable?). So yes, the furler is attached to the top of the mast but the sail itself is not. A lot of boats around here pull their foresail for the winter while the furling gear is staying put on the boat.

Just lower the jib halyard a bit and you will see how it works. Keep in mind that it's a pain to get the jib back into the foil by yourself - much easier for one person to guide the sail and a second person to crank on the halyard.

Hope that makes some sense ....

[HansSolo]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

Cruisingdog...

I am no climber ... so I am not understanding your terminology

What is prussic and prussing?
Jumaring?
ATC?
Rapelling?

This is a prussic knot. It easily slides up a rope when there is no load on it, but will grab when a load is applied.

Jumaring is the act of climbing a rope using ascenders such as these (you could also use two prussic's instead of ascenders). The rope is free to slide through them only one way by means of a cam lobe. Foot straps are often attached to help. When done right its almost like walking up a rope.

This is an ATC. It can be used to rappel -using some means of friction (ATC) for a controlled decent on a rope

[markpierce]

Have someone else climb up the steps.

[zeehag]

how do i climb my mast.
i clean up gooood
i put on a dress and look fiiine..
i go to a place where strong healthy males hang out
i find the one who would look better in my dress than i would and approach him about some extra work as my boat could use it.
he perks up and says he loves working on boats and i have me a slave boy for the next elebenty seben minuets or however long it takes to fix the problem.

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by zeehag

how do i climb my mast.
i clean up gooood
i put on a dress and look fiiine..
i go to a place where strong healthy males hang out
i find the one who would look better in my dress than i would and approach him about some extra work as my boat could use it.
he perks up and says he loves working on boats and i have me a slave boy for the next elebenty seben minuets or however long it takes to fix the problem.

I always feel better about myself when I have on a dress and makeup... especially if I'm climbing a mast

[estarzinger]

I have been using a relatively standard rock climbing system - explained here

But this spring I am going to try a new approach with two 'foot ascenders' and a double rope. The pro tree trimmers have suggested it is much faster - you just 'walk up' the two lines (alternating). I have seen some videos that make it look good/better, but will not know for sure until I actually try it.

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by svHannabel

I detailed my mast climbing method here in this blog post: Sail Far Live Free - Sailboats, Sailing News, and Gear: Up The Mast (as published in Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine)

That's a nice description. Pics would be sweet too.

[boatman61]

I assume you have a bosun's chair... get your main halyard and tie it to 2 full 25L jugs... use the winch to haul them to the top of the mast.. when all the way up jam the line and tie bight onto your chair and you'll go up that mast without effort... just make sure the waters no more than 2/3rds your weight else its damn hard getting back down if your solo..

[SlugmasterP]

We got a secondhand rock-climbing harness and used two halyards to winch up my brother. My brother climbs for a living and our halyards were pretty worn so for an extra precaution he used two lines wrapped around the mast each with a Prussik knot. The bottom Prussik knot he made foot loops. He basically inch-wormed his way up the mast by pushing himself with is feet in the foot loops and sliding the upper Prussik knot up and then sitting in the harness and pulling the bottom Prussik knot up and repeating, basically the same way a self climbing tree stand for hunting works. I just took the slack out of the halyards in case he slipped. It worked great and we felt it was safe since we had multiple back up lines.

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I assume you have a bosun's chair... get your main halyard and tie it to 2 full 25L jugs... use the winch to haul them to the top of the mast.. when all the way up jam the line and tie bight onto your chair and you'll go up that mast without effort... just make sure the waters no more than 2/3rds your weight else its damn hard getting back down if your solo..

Brilliant!

[JMR324]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I assume you have a bosun's chair... get your main halyard and tie it to 2 full 25L jugs... use the winch to haul them to the top of the mast.. when all the way up jam the line and tie bight onto your chair and you'll go up that mast without effort... just make sure the waters no more than 2/3rds your weight else its damn hard getting back down if your solo..

That is good!!!

[cruisingdog]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

Cruisingdog...

I am no climber ... so I am not understanding your terminology

What is prussic and prussing?
Jumaring?
ATC?
Rapelling?



One bit of advice I can offer to a climber is to make fast the bitter end of the halyard by using a bargemans hitch round the winch.. It is not that I don't trust clutches... but it is my body going up the stick..

For other advice, I use an ascender with a long pair of foot loops and a grigri for goung up. I have found that I get better control and balance if I pass the line from the foot loops to the ascender through the climbing harness. That way you affectively anchor your effort close to your CoG.

Using two foot loops allows you to use your feet to guide yourself close to the stick whilst going up.. Tnink about mast rake and the effect of your weight at the top of the rig. I can also stand on the foot loops to give myself the extra few inches right at the top if I need to do anything to the lights Etc.

To come down I remove the ascender and use the Grigri as a decender clutch.. The STOP on a separate rope is the backup.. You need to hang a bucket full of water on the safety line so the STOP can work...

Thanks for the advice. Sorry for using unfamiliar terms. Here's the cross-reference:

What is prussic and prussing? A Prussik knot is actually a friction hitch where one rope can be used as locking device and the other rope being the climbing rope. A Prussik knot is formed by using a loop of rope which is then wrapped around the main rope in a basket hitch kind of way 3 times. It's best if you look at a demo online as it's easier to do than explain!

Jumaring? Jumaring is the common term for an ascender device. I believe it's a Swiss word.

ATC? An ATC is a belay device that climbers use. I have no idea why it is called an ATC (=Air Traffic Controller). They gave it this name for some reason but it doesn't make sense. Probably a marketing name back in the day! It is a friction hitch basically. Kind of works like a prussik but is easier to use. Is better than using a GriGri belay device since GriGri's can't dissipate the heat generated when rappelling. Doesn't autolock as simply a GriGri though so you have to be sure of how to make it work. It's more versatile.


Rappelling? Rappelling/abseiling is the descent of a rope using a belay device. It's the cool thing you see on movies where a squadron of SWAT guys come down the ropes to get the bad guys. And it's really fun!!


I like your idea of feeding the foot loop through your harness loop. It won't give you as much leverage with your legs but will keep you more straight. Neat idea. Will try that. :-)

I've been messing around with a pulley system to assist in my ascent which I locked off with a grigri (still experimenting). Ascender/grigri to inch worm up the rope. Will think about the backup. Maybe a micro ascender or a prussik.