Mast and boson's chair

[Gill]

I used to own a Tatoosh 42 and had no problem working the rigging and other mast fixtures. Now I have a CD25 and I am having second thoughts about the ability of the mast and running rig to support me and the bosons chair. Has anyone been up the mast of their CD25? I have a short in wiring leading to the steaming/anchor light and the inspection should begin at the lights themselves.

Thanks in Advance

Gill



gill@skipnstones.com

[John R.]

A halyard on a boat such as a CD25 should be about 3/8" diameter and that would equate into several thousand pounds breaking strength. As long as the halyard on your boat is in top condition then you will have plenty of strength margin. Do a thorough halyard and associated hardware inspection (splices, shackles if you use them, cleat integrity, etc.)or anything else that will be used. Use a spinnaker halyard as back up and if you are really careful like I am then use the jib halyard also. That gives you three lines, one haul and two safety. Someone on deck will need to tend all three lines or use a jummer from your bosuns chair connected to one of the other halyards that is made fast but that will limit your swing ability to reach the spreader tips unless you allow a long tether between the chair and jummer which will alow you to drop farther if something should fail on the main halyard. It is usually advised to tie off the main halyard to the bosuns chair rather than rely on a shackle but I have to admit I've gone up many a time using a couple shacles that I wire the pin on. The risk in that is that you are truly relying on the splice in the halyard but I usually don't worry because I'm pretty light. Best to just tie the halyard to the chair with a suitable knot of your choice and trust.

The mast should not be an issue in any case unless the thing is in really sad shape. You will only be going up to the spreaders so the support is maximized at that point.

I have a mast mate ladder and even with the use of that device all of the concerns above are still there.


I used to own a Tatoosh 42 and had no problem working the rigging and other mast fixtures. Now I have a CD25 and I am having second thoughts about the ability of the mast and running rig to support me and the bosons chair. Has anyone been up the mast of their CD25? I have a short in wiring leading to the steaming/anchor light and the inspection should begin at the lights themselves.

Thanks in Advance

Gill

[Will W.]

I have used a bosuns chair with a 4 to 1 pulley rig to hoist myself to the top of the mast. So structurally you should be fine going up. However if you only need to get to the steaming light just above the spreaders, I recommend using a regular extention ladder. I use a light weight metal extention ladder with hollow rungs. I run a line through the bottom rung and run it back to the jib sheet cleats on either side, thus securing the bottom from sliding out. I put a folded towel under each of the ladder's legs to prevent scatching the deck. The top of the ladder rests on the mast once you have extended it to the desired height. I put a solid metal bar through the top ladder rung to prevent it from bending on the mast when my weight is on it. The first few times I did this I tied the main halyard to the top of the ladder as extra insurance against falling.
Once you have this set up you can climb up and down at will and you can do it all alone so you don't have to find a helper.
Good luck finding the short. If you wind up deciding to rewire I can give you advise on lowering the mast.

Will Wheatley
Suzi Q
CD25
Sailing from Chesapeake Beach, MD

I used to own a Tatoosh 42 and had no problem working the rigging and other mast fixtures. Now I have a CD25 and I am having second thoughts about the ability of the mast and running rig to support me and the bosons chair. Has anyone been up the mast of their CD25? I have a short in wiring leading to the steaming/anchor light and the inspection should begin at the lights themselves.

Thanks in Advance

Gill

willwheatley@starpower.net