blooming idiot..

[groundhog]

Yes, I am a blooming idiot. And the flower is huge. Maybe record breaking in size.

I'm pretty sure I lost my halyard today. I had this sudden great idea to put up Christmas lights on my fore/backstays. I'm sure most of you have no need to read further..

I only hooked up the lousy lights to the halyard and didn't add a backup retrieval line to the shackle.

The forestay line went up fine which used the Jib halyard.
The backstay line broke the Christmas lights halfway up. So now my main halyard is up there all by itself.

What do I do now?

[tenuki]

buy a powerboat?

[Sasha_V]

Do you have a topping lift that operates the same as your halyard?

If so, you can fasion a fishing tool(be creative, coathangers are an excellent source of material, so is spare meccanno) Hook it to the topping lift ALONG WITH A RETRIEVAL LINE/DOWNHAUL! and then hoist it up and swing it about attempting to wrape the open end of the "hook" around the dangling main halyard. Not that hard to do, though you may end up re-bending your fishing gizmo a couple of times. Once you have "caught" the halyard, release the rope clutch on the main and pull down the downhaul. The fishing gizmo will lside alkong the main halyard till it hits the loop/shackle at its dangly end and then you will be able to gently pull down both topping lift and trapped main.

Simple.


Sasha

[haffiman37]

You probably have to do the same as me when the genua came loose at the top, was ripped out of the profile and ended under the keel mid atlantic. In 15m/s, 4 meters of waves: get up and get it down again!

[SimonV]

Christmas, Bah Humbug......

[Freesail99]

While I have heard many times the phrase, "I am a blooming idiot". I have never heard the second one, "And the flower is huge". Very funny. That said, I am sorry I don't have an answer to your problem.

[sailaway21]

Now you know why most of us just leave our Christmas lights up year round! (g)

[dsmylie]

I did the exact same thing last weekend What I did was get 4 10' sections of 1/2" pvc (with connectors), placed a big hook on the end and then used wire ties to attach the pvc to the sail track every 8' or so. It was little tricky catching the shackle but eventually got it and retrieved my halyard. good luck

[JohnRPollard]

If you have a bridge nearby or tall pier (when the tide is out), it's sometimes possible to pull up alongside and have a friend positioned on the bridge/pier with a boathook to grab the halyard and quickly attach a messenger to it. Otherwise you may need to get a friend to hoist you up in the bosuns's chair on the jib halyard to grab it.

[sailingdog]

LOL... You could use a mast climbing rig, like the ATN Top Climber, or Mast Mate... or you could have someone hoist you up in a bosun's chair. Whether the other options will work depends on a few things, like how tall the mast is... and such... and you may find it just a lot fast to go aloft, than it is to try and futz with snagging the halyard shackle.