I just noticed that my nav light are out on the top. I usually get topside serviced by the riggers, but I don't want to get the riggers out for a $10 globe change. I haven't been up topside in some time, that was as is on the old boat that had some steps so climbing it wasn't too difficult. Any recommendations regarding this matter?

Climbing the mast should be something you can do if reasonably fit. A safe cruising boat is one where the owner can fix most things, including the rig. You need someone you can trust on the halyard, a nice bosuns chair and you want to climb - pull yourself up the stick if possible. I am 51 and still climb my and other people's masts. My brother is 55 and could probably do it freeclimbing (he did in his dangerous youth).

Ensure that the person below wraps only two or so turns on the winch and they follow you tightly as you pull yourself up the mast using spreader bases and lowers etc. Have a small bag with you with your tools in it. Have a light line in the bag or use another halyard to send other tools or materials up and down.

At the top hold on tightly as the person at the base puts more wraps on the winch and cleat it, and you can clip on if you want. I find pulling myself up safer than just being a passenger. I get to determine how fast I go up and I have a really good hold on the rig all of the time. I never use snapshackles - ever. Always tie yourself on.

Some people like two halyards but rock climbers and abseilers are happy with one good rope and so am I. I would not like to go up on a wire rope, especially with a splice, but a nice spectra or polyester halyard is perfectly safe for the 80 kg that a human puts on it. This is a good reason to change halyards every 8 years or so - you never want them to be anything but perfectly safe.

When I get old and weak I may let someone pull me up with the winch.

cheers

Phil

Good advice from Kankama.

If you are going up the mast anyway, if possible, I recommend you change the whole light for one of these so you never have to go up there again to change a bulb.

I bought it for about $140 landed from Bottom Line Marine as I recall, who is an ebay seller located on the Isle of Man.

I use a mast ladder, super handy

I have always thought it prudent to have a 2nd safety line incase a fitting at the mast top gives way.

I'm in my early sixties and was still happy to go up.

I like two people with two halyards as a belts and braces safety thing even though I know it's complete overkill. I also used a rock climbing harness instead of the bosen's chair that came with the boat. It's not as comfortable, but I thought it was safer. Like other people have said, as much as possible I'm pulling myself up or at least hanging onto to something, rather than being a mere dead weight. Mind you, between spreaders, the holding opportunities are limited and I'm not going to pretend I can shin up the mast.

I looked to change the mast fitting like Cisco suggested but the problem was it wasn't just a screw off/ screw on proposition (which is crazy - why don't manufacturers allow for this). I would have had to drill new holes and make some other modifications, so in the end just changed the bulb.

Since changing the bulb I discovered you can actual buy replacement LED bulbs to go in the old fitting; including a version that changes the masthead light to an optional tricolour or all round white depending on how many flicks of the switch you do. I'd definitely look at those for next time.

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Tamble said..

Since changing the bulb I discovered you can actual buy replacement LED bulbs to go in the old fitting....

Note that simply changing an incandescent bulb to an LED may have interesting results depending on the type of LED you use. I've found that doing so in a single bulb arrangement with a three-colour lens results in a very white white sector, a very red red sector, and a noticeably blue green sector. It seems that a white LED isn't truly white, and passed through a green lens results in a colour that tends closer to blue rather than green.

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sydchris said..

Tamble said..

Since changing the bulb I discovered you can actual buy replacement LED bulbs to go in the old fitting....

Note that simply changing an incandescent bulb to an LED may have interesting results depending on the type of LED you use. I've found that doing so in a single bulb arrangement with a three-colour lens results in a very white white sector, a very red red sector, and a noticeably blue green sector. It seems that a white LED isn't truly white, and passed through a green lens results in a colour that tends closer to blue rather than green.

it's to do with colour temperature. incandescent bulbs produce a warm yellowish light (longer wavelengths), and LEDs tend to be cold and bluish (shorter wavelengths). and the lenses are designed to work with the expected colour temperatures of the bulbs. definitely something to watch out for.

I go up masts for a living!!
Never worry about a safety line except on a few circumstances, dodgy halyards etc.
Like said above I try and climb as much as possible.
We always prefer a clutch and self tailing winch if possible.
Always tie a bow line in the halyard, never trust someone else knot/splice/shackle. Once connected bounce hard to make sure all ok.
Another hint.....soooooo many boats have small halyard winches under the Dodger that are a bastard to use. When you get a new main halyard, make it long enough to go to the aft kite block and back to a primary winch, much easier.
If you have mast winches and an anchor winch with rope capstan, run halyard fwd and use this.
Either way, too many people skimp on halyard length!!!

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rumblefish said..
I go up masts for a living!!
Never worry about a safety line except on a few circumstances, dodgy halyards etc.
Like said above I try and climb as much as possible.
We always prefer a clutch and self tailing winch if possible.
Always tie a bow line in the halyard, never trust someone else knot/splice/shackle. Once connected bounce hard to make sure all ok.
Another hint.....soooooo many boats have small halyard winches under the Dodger that are a bastard to use. When you get a new main halyard, make it long enough to go to the aft kite block and back to a primary winch, much easier.
If you have mast winches and an anchor winch with rope capstan, run halyard fwd and use this.
Either way, too many people skimp on halyard length!!!

Great advice everyone. How would you go about climbing it solo/ alone on the boat?

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Seebreasy73 said..

rumblefish said..
I

Great advice everyone. How would you go about climbing it solo/ alone on the boat?

I have a system similar to this though I have a better descender. It's not as easy as it looks in the video. I also have a practice set up in my back yard. I'm 70 and it's getting to be hard work!



There are a lot of similar systems.

I take it mast steps are completely out of fashion.
And just as I was thinking about putting some on Jonathan



Gary

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Seebreasy73 said..

rumblefish said..
I go up masts for a living!!
Never worry about a safety line except on a few circumstances, dodgy halyards etc.
Like said above I try and climb as much as possible.
We always prefer a clutch and self tailing winch if possible.
Always tie a bow line in the halyard, never trust someone else knot/splice/shackle. Once connected bounce hard to make sure all ok.
Another hint.....soooooo many boats have small halyard winches under the Dodger that are a bastard to use. When you get a new main halyard, make it long enough to go to the aft kite block and back to a primary winch, much easier.
If you have mast winches and an anchor winch with rope capstan, run halyard fwd and use this.
Either way, too many people skimp on halyard length!!!

Great advice everyone. How would you go about climbing it solo/ alone on the boat?

Currently I don't climb solo but am planning to get some training from some tree guys to show me their technique

This is a local bloke up his mast solo yesterday I noticed as I was heading offshore. Using a bosuns chair. Not sure what he used to get there. He is installing lazyjacks.



The tree climbing technique is similar to the Aloft Alone video above. The bloke has just packaged the items together and selling a kit. I bought similar stuff of eBay, Chinese ascenders, harness and a Petzl descender. The Chinese stuff is excellent but I thought I might have the best for a descender! The strop I just stitched up myself. I found the leg work to be difficult and I have made up one of these but not tried it yet.



The step system has to go on another halyard and you could either lower it down with the halyard or release it as you descend.

I use a device by the name Topclimber. Allows me to go up single handed. Easy to use.
www.topclimberinternational.com

I'm in my 70's and still climbing the mast.

I got my harness from briontoss.com/ and use a Grigri and Petzl ascender (rock climbing gear).
I don't trust my halyards - even tho their only a few years old.
So I keep a 10mm double braid rope dedicated to mast climbing - this lives in a ziplock bag, in a dry place down below .
I end for end this with whatever halyard I decide to go up - easy to do and very reassuring that I'm relying on a brand new rope I've used only a few times before.
I also use one of the existing halyards as a safety.
With this setup I don't need any assistance, but it's handy to have someone to put any items I need (or forgot) into the hanging bucket.

Check out Brion Toss's website briontoss.com/ for everything you ever need to know about mast climbing, rigging techniques, etc,etc.

regards to all
allan

G'day Ramona, I used to own that Top Hat, good on him it will be a good improvement to the boat.
Back in the day when I used to climb trees for a living, I just used a single length of 14mm rope, thrown up over the limb, tie a bowline to my harness leaving a tail of about 1200. Then tie a prusik hitch a en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prusik round the standing part of the rope forming a loop around the limb. You then thrust up the tree trunk while pulling down the standing part of the rope, lock your hand under your armpit, and slide up the knot, also carrying 1 or 2 adjustable strops on my harness to secure around the tree, while I untie the knots and repeat.
I use the same technique to climb the mast solo. First hoisting up a block(that acts as the tree limb), or a double block to make it easier.
cheers

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BlueMoon said..
G'day Ramona, I used to own that Top Hat, good on him it will be a good improvement to the boat.
Back in the day when I used to climb trees for a living, I just used a single length of 14mm rope, thrown up over the limb, tie a bowline to my harness leaving a tail of about 1200. Then tie a prusik hitch a en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prusik round the standing part of the rope forming a loop around the limb. You then thrust up the tree trunk while pulling down the standing part of the rope, lock your hand under your armpit, and slide up the knot, also carrying 1 or 2 adjustable strops on my harness to secure around the tree, while I untie the knots and repeat.
I use the same technique to climb the mast solo. First hoisting up a block(that acts as the tree limb), or a double block to make it easier.
cheers

I use a Prusik hitch on to my safety line. The new Chinese ascenders are so cheap and well made that its better to go with the modern stuff. Even the strop I use for the Prusik hitch is an eBay item from China. I haul up a dedicated climbing rope but you still have the sheaves that may be in any sort of condition. I hate climbing the mast and prefer to get my mate to do it. He loves it.

good to know that those chinese ascenders are allright. I was thinking about getting some myself, but, when it comes to climbing and betting your life on it, I wasn't so convinced. I would probably get a climbing harness also.
I've seen some synthetic rope with tearing strength of over 1600kg in Bunnings and was labelled for marine use also. I think it as relatvely cheap, I was wondering if I should give those a go. Looks like it could be good enough to use around the boat as any other lines.for any other purpose.

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Seebreasy73 said..
good to know that those chinese ascenders are allright. I was thinking about getting some myself, but, when it comes to climbing and betting your life on it, I wasn't so convinced. I would probably get a climbing harness also.
I've seen some synthetic rope with tearing strength of over 1600kg in Bunnings and was labelled for marine use also. I think it as relatvely cheap, I was wondering if I should give those a go. Looks like it could be good enough to use around the boat as any other lines.for any other purpose.

Real climbing rope is cheap anyway. Has more give if you have a problem. I bought a Petzl descender, the ones windows cleaners use with the bigger handle thinking that it must be better quality than the Chinese version. After looking at all the other Chinese climbing gear I bought I'm not sure that is the case.

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Ramona said..
This is a local bloke up his mast solo yesterday I noticed as I was heading offshore. Using a bosuns chair. Not sure what he used to get there. He is installing lazyjacks....

Hi, I'm the "local bloke" who was installing lazy jacks the other day. I was using a Petzl Grigri2 and Petzl Ascension hand ascender with rock climbing harness and webbing foot loops, much the same as Datawiz (Allan) mentioned above. I wasn't using a bosuns chair, but I added a 1 metre 5000kg round lifting sling ($16 from Bunnings). The sling loops under the bum / lower back and adds a degree of comfort (but not to the same extent as a full bosuns chair). I originally bought the lifting sling to use as an emergency device for potentially recovering a "person overboard" using the main halyard and winch.

Gerard
NightCap - 25ft Top Hat
Greenwell Point, NSW

Here's a link which describes the Grigri / Ascension mast climbing system really well, including a video:
l-36.com/more_mast_climbing.php

Gerard

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GerardM said..
Here's a link which describes the Grigri / Ascension mast climbing system really well, including a video:
l-36.com/more_mast_climbing.php

Gerard

Thanks Gerard

When climbing solo, I use Prusik loops on the main halyard and climbing harness. I also use several slings and attach them around the mast with prusik knots and back to my harness. You have to leap frog the backup slings between spreaders, but at any one time I have a redundant connection. If the halyard was to break, my prusik sling around the mast will take up and arrest a fall. When I get to the top, I make sure I have one of the slings prusik'd around the top of the mast too. Any prusik, jumar, ascender system that allows you to use both legs to push would be best as it's much less tiring. I've used Grigri's to set routes in climbing gyms and they work well. Prusik loops are cheap, your local climbing shop will make them up for a few bucks.

If I'm being hoisted, I always tie in rather that rely on shackles and I always back up with a secondary halyard. I would be very reluctant to go aloft on any single halyard without a redundant backup. When I'm rock climbing I will use a single rope for sport and top rope routes, but trad routes I use two ropes. However the difference with climbing ropes is that you know the ropes age and history, you have it running through your hands regularly when belaying (so you can feel anything dodgy in the sheath) and you do a check on your lead rope regularly by rolling the rope in a tight loop and feeling for inconsistencies in the core. That all makes it more trustworthy than a halyard.

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Seebreasy73 said..
good to know that those chinese ascenders are allright. I was thinking about getting some myself, but, when it comes to climbing and betting your life on it, I wasn't so convinced. I would probably get a climbing harness also.
I've seen some synthetic rope with tearing strength of over 1600kg in Bunnings and was labelled for marine use also. I think it as relatvely cheap, I was wondering if I should give those a go. Looks like it could be good enough to use around the boat as any other lines.for any other purpose.

I tried rope from bunnings and it really isn't boat rope. Either stiff and difficult to use or lacking in bulk and strength.

You lot have blo*** small masts!

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jacktheflyer said..

Seebreasy73 said..
good to know that those chinese ascenders are allright. I was thinking about getting some myself, but, when it comes to climbing and betting your life on it, I wasn't so convinced. I would probably get a climbing harness also.
I've seen some synthetic rope with tearing strength of over 1600kg in Bunnings and was labelled for marine use also. I think it as relatvely cheap, I was wondering if I should give those a go. Looks like it could be good enough to use around the boat as any other lines.for any other purpose.

I tried rope from bunnings and it really isn't boat rope. Either stiff and difficult to use or lacking in bulk and strength.

the one which is marked as marine rope? there are different types. The Grunt Marine Rope is rated at 1750kgs while the high strength is rated at 1900kg (the marine standard) for a 10mm size

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nswsailor said..
You lot have blo*** small masts!

I wonder if he had a downhaul?

They needed them in the 1930s on the J Class, because when you were pulling a man up the mast at a certain height, the weight of the halyard was greater than the weight of the man in the bosun's chair - and in one case aboard Ranger there was the weight of the man, the bucket, and the open tin of paint in the bucket. One of the syndicate had their car on the dock next to the boat, and when the man, bucket and paint arrived at the masthead at high speed the car copped a bucketful of descending paint.

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Chris 249 said..

nswsailor said..
You lot have blo*** small masts!

I wonder if he had a downhaul?

They needed them in the 1930s on the J Class, because when you were pulling a man up the mast at a certain height, the weight of the halyard was greater than the weight of the man in the bosun's chair - and in one case aboard Ranger there was the weight of the man, the bucket, and the open tin of paint in the bucket. One of the syndicate had their car on the dock next to the boat, and when the man, bucket and paint arrived at the masthead at high speed the car copped a bucketful of descending paint.

fractional rig .... 63 /64 ths

This is the tackle that I climb with, you can haul yourself up without too much effort just sitting in the chair or you can sort of reverse abseil and walk / shuffle up. The blocks are just laced but Brion toss shows deferent right angle reevings that offer less friction as the blocks close on each other. This arangment came with the boat I replaced the plywood seat with a nice new sorta compfy job.
double dipping on topics, what I'm doing on my boat today is re oiling mast and spars while I have the main off

Just a note on climbing harnesses. They can be dangerous if you spend too much time in them suspended up a mast. woko's seat and Gerards idea alleviates this problem.

On the Golden Globe races Facebook this morning we have this:

????? ???????? IGOR spent four hours up his mast repairing the forestay now completed. He thought he may die up there as the sea built up. When he came down he could hardly move his hands and feet so rested for a day with many bruises. He is now looking forward to making progress to the east but worries he may have to go up the mast again?? #GGR2018

I'm sure he would have had a comfortable seat but don't spend too much time up a mast solo if you are using a climbing harness.