[Public-List] Mast up! No halyards~!

[Gordon Laco]

Good morning Jeff -

The mast column is no problem - it's massively over built for the loads our
boats put on them with regard to compression.  They'll take thousands of
pounds.   The issue is the integrity of your halyards and blocks - those are
the weak link in the system.  I would hesitate to trust a forty odd year old
nicropress or an old block.

For your immediate issue rigging your halyards, I'd say the safest way to do
this with the mast in place is to use the mast crane to hoist somebody up to
the masthead.  That person should have a sailor's safety harness on so that
once in place they can clip onto the mast, thus providing a redundancy for
safety.  A problem you may encounter is your marina, who probably doesn't
have a human lift rating for their crane.

I think I have already related my story of getting hauled up to the masthead
of a Fife P class boat when I was doing itinerante rigging only to discover
that the block I was on had opened; all that was holding the sheave on the
pin was the remains of the burr that was once the riveted end holding the
absent strap.... I started carrying binoculars in my kit so that I could
take a hard look at the masthead before going up, and then always requested
two halyards on my bosun's chair.

You'll probably have to drop the stick and rig the halyards horizontal.
That should only take a few minutes each way so is not really much more
bother than sending a man up.

Cheers - Gord #426 Surprise


On 16/06/11 8:29 AM, "Jeffrey" <fongemie at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well,
> 
> We launched the boat yesterday in fine weather. Everything went
> smoothly (for a change). Our boatyard helps us raise the mast with a
> crane. We had the spreaders on, stays arranged and all looked neat and
> tidy. Mast went up fine & we motor out to the mooring to finish
> rigging. We were there for a couple hours enjoying ourselves when I
> looked for a halyard to check the positioning of the mast and there
> were no halyards! We pulled the halyards last fall and forgot to
> string them back in.  The only line going up the mast is 1/8 flag
> pennant.
> 
> I'll likely ask the yard to let us come back in and use the crane &
> bosuns chair to thread the two halyards, but I'm wondering if I could
> figure out a way to safely do this myself. I've got years of
> experience with technical climbing, & aid climbing experience and I'm
> very familiar with prusik hitches. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with
> climbing the smooth mast with prussic hitches alone though. I've got
> some small cord that seems to grip well with lots of wraps but
> still..the mast is a smooth pole.
> 
> I've also though if I could raft up alongside a similar sized boat, go
> up the other boat's mast then we shift ballast to lean the boats into
> each other? Getting a willing participant is the tough part of this.
> 
> Can't think of a big tree near deep water, or a suitable bridge.
> 
> Any other possibilities?
> 
> 
> Another question: is there any practical limit to how big a person an
> Alberg 30 mast will safely hold? Last season I needed to fix my
> anemometer atop the mast and a buddy of mine wanted to go up in the
> worst way. He's about 225 lbs and I carefully squirmed my way out of
> it. My wife is 100lbs and has no trouble with heights.  Truth is, I
> was concerned for the rigging & my 45 year old mast beam. Should this
> be a concern?
> 
> 



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