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

[Gordon Laco]

Good morning Jeff -

Well if they'll hoist a man; I reckon that's the way to go; scheduling not
withstanding....

I guess you could send a man up the mast of a substantial boat rafted
alongside you... Heel that mast towards yours, lassoo your mast and haul it
within reach, then run the halyards over the sheaves....

All of which reminds me of a Hungarian friend I used to sit on a board of
directors with.  He had what he called a 'gesture of ethnic wisdom' that was
a signal he'd use if he thought discussion was getting into needless
complexity.  He'd reach over his head with his right hand and scratch his
left ear.  The inference being that the best way to scratch your left ear is
with your left hand.... Brilliant business man.

Gord  #426 Surprise




On 16/06/11 8:52 AM, "Jeffrey" <fongemie at gmail.com> wrote:

> Good morning Gord.
> 
> I agree with your comment on the halyards and blocks. My experience is
> with technical climbing, and the equipment is rated to exact standards
> and I know the strength of everything. Some of these sailing blocks
> are seemingly under built for human safety.
> 
> Question on this though:
> 
> "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."
> 
> Because of the yard being reluctant to send a man up on the crane? I
> don't think they will have a problem with it. I've seen them hoist one
> of the yard guys up in a chair before. The crane can list 12,000lb
> boats all day. It's massive. Which is part of my wish to solve this
> w/o the crane. Getting time under it is difficult with a busy spring
> of boat launching.
> 
> -jeff
> 
> On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 8:40 AM, Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote:
>> 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?
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 



 1308229412.0