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Mast climbing

10K views 61 replies 23 participants last post by  JonEisberg 
#1 ·
I'm about ready to get what I need to climb a mast.
I'm thinking of the harken seat as it got a good review from PS an is priced well.

I'm thinking of going with two ratchet blocks as this allows me to climb the mast with a 4 to 1 advantage by myself with no one winching me up..

What you do is use the halyard to hoist up the top block then hook the bottom block to your bosen's chair and just pull yourself up. The block with the becket is on the top so you have a 4 to one advantage.

Both blocks are ratcheting blocks. The top block is set on ratchet all the time.

The bottom block you can turn the ratchet on and off.

The way it works is that on the assent you have the bottom ratchet turned on.
Depending on your weight if you let go you will either stay in place or go down slowly.
To descend just turn off the ratchet of the bottom block and your weight will overwhelm the upper ratchet and you will descend.

You loose a few inches because of the blocks and I would bring a couple of foot straps just in case I needed to get a little higher.

I considered the ATN system but the above system while being a little more money requires less skill, I believe coming down would be faster and it can double a man-overboard retrieval.

I got the idea from at least two riggers I know who use the same system.
My son who is rigger personally uses a system with acenders similar to the the ATN but with extra gear so he can drop in about five seconds which is important to him. I tried it using his equipment and talked to a couple of his friends and my take is that the acender system requires some practice skill and strength all of which I'm afraid I may never have.
His boss and another rigger in the yard uses the ratchet block method above.

I am pretty happy with the blocks I've selected but was surprised that they are only good for 1,200 lbs. This means that my block system would be good for the following jobs.
  • Lifting a small motor
  • Taking the slack out of a shroud until I could get it pinned.
  • Lifting a MOB

Basically anything I could lift by hand. If I can pull 150 lbs which I probably can't I'm lifting less than 600 which is significantly below the working load.

If I get cliver however and use the winch I'm pretty sure I could exceed the block loading spec. I would be afraind to trust it with my life if it was overloaded.

I would be willing to spend more for higher capacity blocks as even simple double braid is rated at 7,100 breaking so doing a 50% load of 3,500.00 on a 4 to one load would be about 7 ton.

That kind of block and tackle system could be used for serious work. Like moving the boat for example. I can not find ratchet blocks that can handle that however.

I'm thinking of going to a 7/16" 12 strand arborist line as I'm pretty sure the hand is better and it bag stuffs with little chance of knotting and the price is not too much more than double braid.
 

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#54 ·
"I suppose it's about time someone noted the potential risk of "
No no, that's totally OT, belongs in the Liability Forum not here in sailing.

As to being gristly, that's one of the dangers of sailing, and one of the dangers of ski tows and lifts as well. The medics call it "traumatic amputation" when a loop of line, or your scarf, gets wrapped around a wrist, a finger, a foot, a neck (yes, neck) and POP! the two sides get separated.

Which is one reason why sailors have traditionally carried sharp knives, because if you're lucky, you've got a couple of short seconds to cut the line, before the amputation happens.

Solo trips aloft? Yeah, well, if you want to go aloft safely, you pay a rigger to do it instead. If some ape has your car keys and has gone up the mast, you go up after 'em solo. Unless you've got a wooden mast, in which case you can just build a fire and burn 'em out.

Oh wait, wrong forum. :)
 
#57 ·
As to being gristly, that's one of the dangers of sailing, and one of the dangers of ski tows and lifts as well. The medics call it "traumatic amputation" when a loop of line, or your scarf, gets wrapped around a wrist, a finger, a foot, a neck (yes, neck) and POP! the two sides get separated.

Which is one reason why sailors have traditionally carried sharp knives, because if you're lucky, you've got a couple of short seconds to cut the line, before the amputation happens.
I don't know, just seems so much simpler to try to do it the right way, to begin with...

You do realize that if anyone aboard that Amel had the presence of mind to cut that line, it would have dropped the guy aloft towards the deck, right?
 
#56 ·
"My GF 'dropped' me about 8" "
Well, as long as the two of you agreed on what eight inches is. :)

Onceuponatime I was rock climbing and came to a point where the next move up was to put my hands on a shallow ledge and lift my body up. Except, there was this yellowjacket hive on the ledge. So I called down "Failling, four feet!" and my belay said "WHAT?" because that's not exactly a conveniental call. So I said "FALLING. FOUR FEET." and pushed back. I figured, he'd figure it out as the rope went zip, and if he didn't figure it out, well, that still beat all hell out of the yellowjacket nest.

Good belay, it was just about four feet. (G)

Eight inches? Say, don't tell me you got one a them cheap bosun's chairs without any cup holders in it?!
 
#59 ·
"it would have dropped the guy aloft towards the deck, right? "
Gravity sucks. But that's why safety lines why invented.

If you attached to a safety line with a prussik, or an ascender, it should allow you to go up without incident, and lock up under tension if you start down rapidly. So cutting a line? Well, from the writeup it sounds like the folks who could have cut it, might not be the right people to give sharp objects either.

Reminds me of the first time I used a can recycling machine. You put the can in a hydraulic press, push a button, the machine crushes the can and gives you credit for a nickel. So this machine decides there's something unacceptable about one can and it tells me "Remove can and try again" and as I lifted my hand, I said to myself, self, are you really going to put your hand into a hydraulic press that's operating all by itself and behaving in a demented manner?

Nope. This chimp was taught to use a stick in places like that. Don't really want to know why that macine is upset, certainly not going to put my fingers in to find out.
 
#62 · (Edited)
"it would have dropped the guy aloft towards the deck, right? "
Gravity sucks. But that's why safety lines why invented.

If you attached to a safety line with a prussik, or an ascender, it should allow you to go up without incident, and lock up under tension if you start down rapidly. So cutting a line? Well, from the writeup it sounds like the folks who could have cut it, might not be the right people to give sharp objects either.
I'm familiar with the use of safety lines and fall arresting gear, thanks… Just a hunch, that a team who used an electric winch in such a fashion, might have dispensed with other such precautions, as well… And, I purposely said "towards" the deck, instead of "to" the deck...

I simply thought it was worth pointing out the potential hazard of using powered winches for lifting purposes… Electric winches have a well-demonstrated capacity for breaking both gear, and people, when used unwisely… Anyone is free to disregard such advice, of course…

But if I were going aloft on a powered winch, I'd sure rather do it in the hands of one person operating the winch, and a second one doing the tailing - as opposed to one person using the winch in self-tailing mode, with one hand on the button, and the other hand holding a knife at the ready… Perhaps that's just me, however… (grin)

And, as to the utility of a knife in such an incident as that at Jolly Harbour? An Amel 54 likely uses a 1/2 or 9/16 inch main halyard, and it almost certainly would be a high-modulus rope with a core of Spectra, or similar… Even with a freshly-honed Boye cobalt blade, good luck cutting through that sucker in the few seconds before it would have been fed onto the winch drum…
 
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