Going Aloft: Lessons Learned

[WanderingStar]

What was easy at 27 is still doable at 47, just much harder.
The spreaders don't look far from the deck, but the deck looks far from the spreaders.
What I learned in the coast Guard is still good.
I went up the stick yesterday, hauling myself up with a tackle. Twenty years ago I just pulled myself up the main halyard. But I was stronger and lighter then.
I put bird spikes on the spreaders, they passed their first test. Every bird that approached veered off at the last second.

[Bene505]

Way to go WanderingStar!

It's a great feeling, isn't it?

Where did you get the bird spikes?

[ereiss]

On my Pearson 33-2 I had bird problems and used electrical ties (clear or white) and spaced them every two inches with their tails sticking up. Worked like a charm, cheap, not very visible and easy to install.

Just a thought.

Ed Reiss
Being There
Freedom 38 (NO SPREADERS!!)
out of Bristol, RI

[WanderingStar]

Thanks Brad.
I got the spikes at a local hardware store, they are the steel ones.
I considered using wire ties, but I wasn't sure if it would work, and I didn't want to go up twice!

[erps]

I'm going to remember that one.

I got handed down a mastmate climbing dealy-bob. That sure makes going up the mast easier over the wife winching me up on the halyard.

[Sabreman]

WanderingStar - You are so right. At 52 I'm in good shape, running 2 half marathons (slowly) in the last year. I went up the mast 3 times this summer and marvel that when I was 19, I would shimmy up the mast on a 33' boat to replace the masthead light. I would work one handed and then slide down. And it happened more than once since I worked at a boatyard. Amazing. I'm not sure that I could get to the first set of spreaders on my boat nowadays.

My wife loves winching me up the mast ... good upper body workout, she says. She's such a jock.

I had so much fun writing that last part, that I erased it twice... instead of "winching", there are other more fun verbs...

[WanderingStar]

Hoist away Honey!
My girl Jane couldn't stop joking about "going up the mast" yesterday.
When I went aloft on my Pennant Sloop,(twenty years ago) I tied the halyard around my thighs and hauled on the running part. This time I rigged a gun tackle, hauled that up with the halyard, then pulled myself up in a bosn's chair. As ever, my legs were more tired from bracing myself than my arms from hauling. I took a hitch below the block to hold it up, and of course used a safety harness as backup.