Climb mast - no ropes!

[Lionshooter]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

And if you take a shot at a lion and miss those tree climbing skills could be really valuable.......

[Lionshooter]

Originally Posted by TheSeawolf

rent a tall step ladder.

Funny, but a guy in my marina tied a 10' ladder to a 30' ladder and set it up in the cockpit. It worked!

[grantmc]

Interesting problem. I can't quite imagine why you'd remove all the halyards, I guess when you were packing up to move to a new village.

Suggestion 1 would be to use a cherry picker. This is something we do on a semi regular basis at my club. We someone needs to hire a unit they advertise the date in the Club weekly email. Others who also want to take advantage of opportunity share costs. There are usually 4 or 5 people with a little job or two to do given the opportunity to use the unit for an hour or so. Splitting the costs up this way makes it a cheap option.

Suggestion 2 is to use the boom of the travel lift. Some marinas will let you climb up and out on their travel lift some wont. But you just glide boat in as if being lifted out, secure boat with lines, and operator positions travel lift where you can access the mast top, climb and fix.

Some photos. This wont help the guy that posted the halyard problem. But a local Club has a hand crane for members to do mast work. It's as you'd expect right beside jetty. I have included some photos. Unfortunately I couldn't find any that show the unit being operated.

You'll see that the same Club hosted a bird weekend. This allowed people to don their best flying equipment and proceed to fly from from a platform assembled by the crane. I thought you guys might have a chuckle. Needless to say a couple of the flyers weren't seen for hours given that they'd flown so far.

[grantmc]

Eek I forgot picture of Cherry picker.

[jim King]

My first thought was with the one reply that suggested getting a buddy with a larger boat to come alongside and have the smallest crew go up his mast in a bosuns chair. Put several fenders between your boats and then connect the two masts with a line. Tighten the line to bring the two masts together and then have the man at the top drop a messenger line down your mast with a small weight attached. You can pull the weighted messenger line out from the base of your mast and then attach your halyard to it from the top. pull the messenger line from the base until you have retrieved the halyard.

[stormalong]

Pull the mast. Do a three boat raft-up, use the spinnaker halyards from the two outside boats to lift the mast and set it down on deck. Reeve your halyards and reverse the process.

[waterman46]

I'm sure personal injury lawyers are actively following this thread.

[thinwater]

The prusik hitch was invented by Carl Prusik and is not spelled like Prussia. Just sayin'.

Yes, I have done it this way, specifically on 3/4 rigged boats where only one halyard goes to the masthead. Perfectly safe and not overly difficult. Just rig it like a ATN Topclimber, with a harness and foot loops. IMO pulling the mast is a waste of time and effort for what amounts to a routine job, assuming you are OK with high places.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Prusik

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by mikebikeboy

... and not overly obese.

I wonder what that means. I read “out of shape” and could hurt myself.

I’m old and hire younger men to compensate for my lack of self discipline in the years before now.

[OceanFox]

"I can't quite imagine why you'd remove all the halyards, I guess when you were packing up to move to a new village."

I almost lost rum out my nose reading this!!

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Minggat

I wonder what that means. I read “out of shape” and could hurt myself.

I’m old and hire younger men to compensate for my lack of self discipline in the years before now.

I'm 60 years old, but I should disclose that I still go rock climbing every few weeks, in part for exercise, and in part to blow off a few 20-somethings that are just learning. I'm not as fit as I once was, but at least fair and I'm relaxed up in the air. So yeah... you have to gauge your own abilities.

[krupke]

Is there another marina nearby?
You may want to consider spending the money to do it correctly and safely, Could be cheaper in the long run.
Good luck!

[TheSeawolf]

Originally Posted by Lionshooter

Funny, but a guy in my marina tied a 10' ladder to a 30' ladder and set it up in the cockpit. It worked!

I was totally serious. You can rent a 36 foot extendable ladder and it works great. Have a safety harness using the mast.

Sailors seem to have a love affair with making things as difficult and time consuming as possible!!!

[Djarraluda]

Originally Posted by mikebikeboy

I recently took down my sails for the winter, and stupidly took down the halyards too.



Does anyone know a fairly safe method to climb a mast without a halyard? Might there be ascenders I could attach to the cap shrouds? Or, loop around the mast and inch-worm my way up?

#dontWannaDie

Ascenders will 'bite' into their line, so you do not want to try these on a shroud. Those of us who use ascenders tend to use the halyard to hoist another line that you actually run the ascenders on, it saves a lot of angst after you damage the halyard.
Roger

[JPK]

Originally Posted by stormalong

Pull the mast. Do a three boat raft-up, use the spinnaker halyards from the two outside boats to lift the mast and set it down on deck. Reeve your halyards and reverse the process.

The club I used to belong to posted this video a while back showing this exact process:

https://www.facebook.com/ocscsailing...2441102832601/

Seems pretty straightforward.