Topclimber to Get Up the Mast?

[Inthewind]

I recieved one of these as a gift. ATN Home Page -- sailing, sail, storm, gale, tacker, spinnaker, sleeve, stasher, flasher, douser, chute scoop, sally, case, furler, roller, reefed sail, single handed, short handed, cruising, transatlantic, round the world, Jules Verne Trophy, BOC, w Was wondering if any of you have used one and what do you think about it? I think it is pretty cool and can't wait to try it. You can go up the mast without any help with one of these.

[s/v 'Faith']

I recommend you do a search, this has been addressed before.

I do not really like mine much, but it does work. One tip is to get the halyard you are climbing about as tight as a guitar string... otherwise the energy is mostly absorbed by the line.

Practice using it a few times and it gets easier... but not (IMHO) as easy as the web site makes it look.

Good luck,

[Inthewind]

Ok, I read previous post and it sounds like I will like this thing. Thanks

[marc]

I've had mine about 9-10 years, and I love it. I have a designated line(not a halyard) for climbing that I tie to the base of the mast, then winch very tight. Climbing next to the mast is very easy, because you can hold onto the mast when standing up. I find it more difficult to climb the rope by itself, but this method makes it's easier to get higher. With a little practice, you'll be fine. Tie a safety line to another halyard with a prusick, or similar knot, that you can slide up or down as you climb.
Marc

[duncan_ellison]

I've only uses mine once, but it really did the job. I was up the mast about 90 mins fitting a radar reflector and maintaining the anchor light and ir was quite comfy.

One big hint though - wear gloves !!!

Duncan
S/Y TALISA
On the hard in RI

[eyschulman]

Do not like it very slow and more effort than I thought it would be from adds.

[roverhi]

I've had mine for a couple of years. Have rerigged the boat while in place, added a number of bits of hardware and gone up a couple of times just to take pictures. Went up to the masthead 7 times in one day replacing the head stay and R&Ring the roller furling. Being able to climb to the masthead without needing anyone's help has been invaluable.

It takes a bit of work to climb but practice makes it easier. There is a bit of a learning curve to use it easily. Biggest improvement was changing out my main halyard to a hitech lowstretch line. Crank that up very tight so there is virtually no stretch in the line. Makes climbing way more efficient. If the climbing line is not cranked really tight and/or quite stretchy you waste a lot of effort in overcoming the elasticity of the line. Don't forget to put a line around all your tools. It's a long way to the deck and things like drill motors bounce quite high and pretty much guaranteed to go off the boat. To make it short, it's one tool that I would be at a serious loss without.

Climbing is not effortless and not super fast but gets you to the top in a few minutes. I've not had any problems climbing and I'm no spring chicken, just turned 65. If you are fifty pounds overweight and in terrible shape, you might want to higher a rigger, however.