Has anyone ever gone up the mast of a CD25?

[JimL]

I found out I ruined my VHF coax when I rigged the boat, so I'm considering pulling a new one and change the mast-top antenna. Years ago a friend of mine went up the mast of his Santana 20.....did fine until he swung his arm up to reach the wayward halyard. Mast went all the way to the water and dumped him off!

Has anyone ever tried running the halyards out sideways to stabilize the boat? I have an extra, rigged, for my non-existent spinnaker. I'm just chicken to go up there without knowing what might happen!

Thanks for any ideas, JimL



leinfam@earthlink.net

[Dave]

It shouldn't be a problem at all to go up the mast. My brother was nominated to go up when we launched a couple years ago because he was the lightest of everybody there and he weights about 150lbs. Just keep the weight in line of the mast and you won't have any problems, hopefully.

Dave D.
CD25 R&R
Gloucester, Ma
Ps. Today is the launch date for R&R. I thought this day would never come!!! Looks like we should have a pretty good weekend. We have to sail from York Me to Gloucester Ma and it doesn't matter what direction the wind blows as long as we're out on the water.

I found out I ruined my VHF coax when I rigged the boat, so I'm considering pulling a new one and change the mast-top antenna. Years ago a friend of mine went up the mast of his Santana 20.....did fine until he swung his arm up to reach the wayward halyard. Mast went all the way to the water and dumped him off!

Has anyone ever tried running the halyards out sideways to stabilize the boat? I have an extra, rigged, for my non-existent spinnaker. I'm just chicken to go up there without knowing what might happen!

Thanks for any ideas, JimL

ddsailor25@ureach.com

[Will W.]

I could not get any help so I did it myself. As long as your stays and shrouds are connected and not deteriorating you should not have any problems. Since you have the extra spinnaker halyard I would attach that to the bow plate.
I do this because I climb the mast on a ladder to just above the spreaders. This has the ladder with its base on the foredeck just fore of where the cabin rises up. The top of the ladder rests on the mastjust above the spreaders. So the spin. halyard will be reinforcing the forestay when you actually climb the ladder.
Now you may say yeah but that is only half way how do I get the rest of the way up. Here is what I did yesterday. I put up my ladder as usual. Then I connected my 4 to 1 boom vang to the jib halyard. Then a bosons chair connected to the bottom of the boom vang ( you may want a longer rope in the vang depending on how long it is now).I then let the vang out as much as it would go. Now I hoisted the jib halyard so that the top of the vang was hanging about 6 inches below the mast head. Make sure your vang is not running free when you do this. In my case this put the bosons chair just below the spreaders. Now the fun part. Climb the ladder and sit on the chair. Now even more fun, pull yourself up to the top using the vang. I wiegh 215#s so I got 60+ pounds on you and it went fine.
Two words of caution. One, try this at home first, to get comfortable with the idea of raising and lowering yourself. The tricky part is going down when you first release the vangs rope from the cam cleat. Make sure you have a firm grip on that rope before you release it. I raised and lowered myself in a tree in my yard for about 20 minutes one day just to get used to it.
Two, climbing the mast alone is crazy. I only wanted to know that if I had to do it I could. Besides I built this really nice bosons chair so I had to use it. If you are climbing the mast to get to the antennae and you have both jib and main halyards you could put the mainsheet traveller on the main halyard in a set up just like the vang to jib halyard set up. This could be connected to a safety harness.I dont think there is any question that this operation is safer and quicker with a least one helper.
I will throw in a third piece of advice here. Check the weight limits of every piece of equipment you might use for this. Knowing that each piece of the set up is rated to handle well over my weight gives me one less thing to worry about when/if I ever need to do this again. Also bypass any snap shackles and use the heavy steel ones instead.

Will Wheatley
Suzi Q
CD25
Sailing ( hopefully as of today again ) from Cesapeake Beach, MD

I found out I ruined my VHF coax when I rigged the boat, so I'm considering pulling a new one and change the mast-top antenna. Years ago a friend of mine went up the mast of his Santana 20.....did fine until he swung his arm up to reach the wayward halyard. Mast went all the way to the water and dumped him off!

Has anyone ever tried running the halyards out sideways to stabilize the boat? I have an extra, rigged, for my non-existent spinnaker. I'm just chicken to go up there without knowing what might happen!

Thanks for any ideas, JimL

willwheatley@starpower.net

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Will,

Any professional I have ever seen, does NOT use any shackles when going aloft. Tie in a good old bowlin', much safer than relying on a cheap piece of metal...........FWIW.........

D. Stump
Hanalei

[Ken Coit]

Not only wouldn't I use shackles, I would be rigging a safety line and a working line. Someone else here quite a while ago recommended using two new halyards, two new lines bent onto the halyards, and both halyards raised to the masthead. These are then used for climbing and protection, one each. I think we may have been discussing the Prusik (Prusick??)knot in conjunction with this. A further advantage of this is that is you become disabled while aloft, it is still possible for someone on deck to get you down. It would not be a pretty sight to be disabled, swinging just above the spreaders in your bosn's seat and unable to get down.

Be safe and keep on sailing,

Ken Coit
CD/14 #538
CD/36 #84 Parfait
Hailing Port: Raleigh, NC
Sailing from: Beaufort, NC

I found out I ruined my VHF coax when I rigged the boat, so I'm considering pulling a new one and change the mast-top antenna. Years ago a friend of mine went up the mast of his Santana 20.....did fine until he swung his arm up to reach the wayward halyard. Mast went all the way to the water and dumped him off!

Has anyone ever tried running the halyards out sideways to stabilize the boat? I have an extra, rigged, for my non-existent spinnaker. I'm just chicken to go up there without knowing what might happen!

Thanks for any ideas, JimL

parfaitNOSPAM@nc.rr.com

[Will W.]

Ahoy Captain
I don't know any riggers so I will take your word. And i agree with the concept you give to rely on the rope and not the shackle. However, I think in some cases there must be some way to join two things when each of those two things already has a loop in the end. Like with your jib halyard and your boom vang or bosons chair. I don't think you are recommending I try to tie a bowline in my wire jib halyard. This said I think a shackle is fine for this application. If it is good enough and strong enough to hold my boat at anchor during a storm ( I did say heavy steel ), then I am confident it will keep me aloft for a little bit.

Will Wheatley
Suzi Q
CD25

Will,

Any professional I have ever seen, does NOT use any shackles when going aloft. Tie in a good old bowlin', much safer than relying on a cheap piece of metal...........FWIW.........

D. Stump
Hanalei

willwheatley@starpower.net

[John R.]

Absolutely never used a *snap shackle* or other quick release halyard shackle! Only use a traditional pin shackle that has a seizing hole in the pin end (use it)if you are going to go the shackle route rather than the bowline. Make sure the splice, knot or wire rope nicro press is in top condition on the halyard. Always and I mean always use at least one back up halyard such as the jib and/or spinnaker halyards.

Rule #1: Don't go up if any gear is looking aged, worn or rusted in any way until that situation is corrected. If going above the spreader point use a safety belt around the mast that will stop a fall at the spreaders in the event a fall should occur. In lieu of a belt you can use a jummer with a caribiner hook on one end. Run the jummer up another halyard as you go up and have the other end clipped onto your chair or harness.

Ahoy Captain
I don't know any riggers so I will take your word. And i agree with the concept you give to rely on the rope and not the shackle. However, I think in some cases there must be some way to join two things when each of those two things already has a loop in the end. Like with your jib halyard and your boom vang or bosons chair. I don't think you are recommending I try to tie a bowline in my wire jib halyard. This said I think a shackle is fine for this application. If it is good enough and strong enough to hold my boat at anchor during a storm ( I did say heavy steel ), then I am confident it will keep me aloft for a little bit.

Will Wheatley
Suzi Q
CD25

Will,

Any professional I have ever seen, does NOT use any shackles when going aloft. Tie in a good old bowlin', much safer than relying on a cheap piece of metal...........FWIW.........

D. Stump
Hanalei

[Randy Bates]

Not only wouldn't I use shackles, I would be rigging a safety line and a working line. Someone else here quite a while ago recommended using two new halyards, two new lines bent onto the halyards, and both halyards raised to the masthead. These are then used for climbing and protection, one each. I think we may have been discussing the Prusik (Prusick??)knot in conjunction with this. A further advantage of this is that is you become disabled while aloft, it is still possible for someone on deck to get you down. It would not be a pretty sight to be disabled, swinging just above the spreaders in your bosn's seat and unable to get down.

Be safe and keep on sailing,

Ken Coit
CD/14 #538
CD/36 #84 Parfait
Hailing Port: Raleigh, NC
Sailing from: Beaufort, NC

I found out I ruined my VHF coax when I rigged the boat, so I'm considering pulling a new one and change the mast-top antenna. Years ago a friend of mine went up the mast of his Santana 20.....did fine until he swung his arm up to reach the wayward halyard. Mast went all the way to the water and dumped him off!

Has anyone ever tried running the halyards out sideways to stabilize the boat? I have an extra, rigged, for my non-existent spinnaker. I'm just chicken to go up there without knowing what might happen!

Thanks for any ideas, JimL

Years ago I went to REI (the camping,climbing equipment store) and bought a set of self climbing ascendors used by mountain climbers to ascend vertical cliffs. It consists of two ascendors that grip the rope to prevent falling back down , but release with the push of a button in order to be slid up the rope. You'll also need a harness (good bosun chair works great) and a piece of NON- STRETCH rope for the acsndors to run up that's twice plus the masthead height. Or you can climb the main halyard if it's the right diameter for the ascendors. Climbing is then a simple matter of running one ascendor up, standing up in it's foot rope, sliding the other ascendor up to the first, standing in it's foot rope and keep repeating till your at the top. Any REI store with climbing equipment will be more than glad to show you how. They do tend to be rather elist when I said no I don't climb rocks I want it to get up my mast. I think they were afraid I was going to out and kill myself. Which is of course why some folks hire others to climb their mast. When I was younger and dumber I climbed a 42' ketch's mast using the same system used in the tropics to climb coconut trees. A length of rope between the ankles to keep ones feet wedged on the mast/tree trunk.



randy.bates@baesystems.com