A variety of tasks to be done mast top. I have a good harness, but I know that between tools and parts, I will be up and down like a yo yo. So Harbor Freight has a $59 winch with remote. I'm trying to figure out the best way to mount the power winch temporarily but solidly. My thought is a mounting it to a board running the width of the cockpit secured at each side to the aft cleats by rope or a U-Clamp. And, yes, my will is in order and there is no exemption in my life insurance for extreme stupidity.
Winching up the Mast
- Thread starter wufibugs
- Start date
Why not have a competent person with you and use a messenger line and bucket system? This is much more cost effective and much safer.
Lay out every possible tool that you will need for the work. Put it in a logical order. Go over this with your helper. Label the tools if necessary.
Go aloft and stay aloft. Use the bucket and messenger line to get tools up and down to you while you do your work.
This is MUCH much MUCH safer!
Lay out every possible tool that you will need for the work. Put it in a logical order. Go over this with your helper. Label the tools if necessary.
Go aloft and stay aloft. Use the bucket and messenger line to get tools up and down to you while you do your work.
This is MUCH much MUCH safer!
I wouldn't Trust my life to $60 HF winch. Not to mention the damage to the boat if you fell. Somebody would have to clean that up.
While Harbor Freight has great prices for many items, a $59 winch with remote that your life depends on is not one of them. Follow BO's advice and in additon, attach a second halyard to your harness for redundancy. Else you may be a candidate for the Darwin Award!!
I use 2 halyards (one to pull me up and one to belay me in event of failure.) A messenger line with a bucket brings my stuff up and down. Next time I plan to use an ascender and let the wife belay off a spare halyard. When I'm not going up or down (as in working on top) she can cleat it off to get stuff. When I want to ascend or descend she uses a winch with a few wraps around for belay it. It's pretty easy.
Ken
Ken
"like a yo yo. So Harbor Freight has a $59 winch with remote. I'm trying to figure out the best way to mount the power winch temporarily but solidly."
And, yes, my will is in order and there is no exemption in my life insurance for extreme stupidity.[/quote]
Oh, I like your choice of words.......Yo Yo. We bin there, we tried that, we failed, so we be in the Yo Yo class too!!!!
The problem that developed for us with a HF winch was that the cable would not wind in rows like we had hoped. We gave that project up pretty quickly. (You can't hate someone for trying!)
Have several friends available to winch you up and use the messenger lines as suggested above. Ascenders are great if you have a waist harness and like to imagine yourself scaling K-2 or a pinnacle in the west. Using your legs and arms to climb is a good workout. Prior to age 62 I would not hesitate to climb the mast with a set of ascenders, lines, harness, and a lineman's belt with a safety line. At nearly 66.....not so much!
Idea: Hire a competent rigger. We did that last week. Best Wishes!
And, yes, my will is in order and there is no exemption in my life insurance for extreme stupidity.[/quote]
Oh, I like your choice of words.......Yo Yo. We bin there, we tried that, we failed, so we be in the Yo Yo class too!!!!
The problem that developed for us with a HF winch was that the cable would not wind in rows like we had hoped. We gave that project up pretty quickly. (You can't hate someone for trying!)
Have several friends available to winch you up and use the messenger lines as suggested above. Ascenders are great if you have a waist harness and like to imagine yourself scaling K-2 or a pinnacle in the west. Using your legs and arms to climb is a good workout. Prior to age 62 I would not hesitate to climb the mast with a set of ascenders, lines, harness, and a lineman's belt with a safety line. At nearly 66.....not so much!
Idea: Hire a competent rigger. We did that last week. Best Wishes!
Wuf,
As was said in other replies, I would NOT trust that winch. And beside that, do you have other uses for it?
I use Jammers and have done the Yo-Yo thing often with them. See it at;
http://youtu.be/618qc7ZFAQk?list=PLnA9GMvTHKtYwE2hLyiRCwpj9OcuzlRID
Easy and good to have aboard the boat for that time "out there" that they come in handy!
Greg
I work on sailboats for members of my sail club. They all know that I will absolutely not use any of the garbage that HF sells! Remember you get what you pay for. Use a couple of friends to send you up the mast safely in a bosuns chair. Proper equipment will allow you to relax so you can do a good job.
I do not know if we have EVER-EVER had so much agreement on any issue other than only one person replied! 
:dance:
:dance:
Yes...yes...I agree that we agree.... I purchased a variable speed, 7 inch sander/polisher for like $49 that has worked out really well. For the intended purpose, I think a $59 power winch that has rewind issues would leave me hanging....."hardy, har, har" it's funny, but it really isn't.I do not know if we have EVER-EVER had so much agreement on any issue other than only one person replied!
The pro riggers I've seen all use a 4:1 purchase to pull them selves up. But those guys all box in the lightweight division. You could do the same and give the tail to some one willing crank you up with a deck winch, especially with a 2 speed, ST winch and 10 inch handle.
The ascenders require a fairly good set of abs and some flexibility....
If you absolutely have to use power to get aloft on your boat, then use your anchor windlass's capstan. It will still require two people, but you can rest easy that it is certainly strong enough and securely enough mounted that your life won't be at risk from that bit of equipment.
Using any power winch alone, how would you get down if it failed when you were near the top of your mast? Not a good idea to go up alone without a proper block and tackle put together for exactly that purpose, and that isn't cheap, even for a small boat like yours. Going aloft alone on a block and tackle rig requires a special knot and some expertise, and is not something one should do alone and inexperienced, the first time. If this is something you would like to become proficient at, then hire a rigger to show you how to build the rig and how to use it safely.
Using any power winch alone, how would you get down if it failed when you were near the top of your mast? Not a good idea to go up alone without a proper block and tackle put together for exactly that purpose, and that isn't cheap, even for a small boat like yours. Going aloft alone on a block and tackle rig requires a special knot and some expertise, and is not something one should do alone and inexperienced, the first time. If this is something you would like to become proficient at, then hire a rigger to show you how to build the rig and how to use it safely.
Wuf,
Take heed to all the replies here pal. The guys know what they are talking about.
I don't want to read about you in the yearly Darwin Awards. To win here, you have to DIE!
A problem with a regular bosun chair is, that many can't get you high enough to work atop the mast. You end up working with your arms overhead. I have a Top Climber chair that I can take myself up & have my head above the masthead. But even with this, I have someone work a safety halyard.
I sometimes use a local mobile rigging guy that works charging a fair price. I didn't feel like going thru the trouble & replacing my 3 foot antenna an Osprey took out. He came, went up & the whole job costs me $75.00. He was done in ten minutes.
You may want to check into using a rigger. A $60.00 power winch, the pain of installing this, that not-so-safe platform, this has Darwin Award written all over it. I cannot believe the power winch has the capacity for lifting say, a 200# man & all for only $60.00?
I thought smaller power winches are designed to lift sails, not people.
ps: be careful of what you buy at Harbor Freight. Simple tools etc. for light duty are fine but, I wouldn't trust my life to a product from China. Hell they can't make a drywall product without poisoning it first.
CR
Take heed to all the replies here pal. The guys know what they are talking about.
I don't want to read about you in the yearly Darwin Awards. To win here, you have to DIE!
A problem with a regular bosun chair is, that many can't get you high enough to work atop the mast. You end up working with your arms overhead. I have a Top Climber chair that I can take myself up & have my head above the masthead. But even with this, I have someone work a safety halyard.
I sometimes use a local mobile rigging guy that works charging a fair price. I didn't feel like going thru the trouble & replacing my 3 foot antenna an Osprey took out. He came, went up & the whole job costs me $75.00. He was done in ten minutes.
You may want to check into using a rigger. A $60.00 power winch, the pain of installing this, that not-so-safe platform, this has Darwin Award written all over it. I cannot believe the power winch has the capacity for lifting say, a 200# man & all for only $60.00?
I thought smaller power winches are designed to lift sails, not people.
ps: be careful of what you buy at Harbor Freight. Simple tools etc. for light duty are fine but, I wouldn't trust my life to a product from China. Hell they can't make a drywall product without poisoning it first.
CR
I'm glad I have a trailerable that I can unpin the forestay and lower the mast. I guess the downside is I can't enjoy the view and I have to put the boat in a position while in water where the top of the mast is over a dock or ground to address the top of the mast.
I never climbed a mast or even seen anyone (not counting videos) do it. I'd love to tho, at least once. I'm not a lightweight guy and I'm pretty sure my mast wouldn't like it.
Today, I wanted to replace my Davis wind indicator and put a flag halyard on the spreader but I'll have to drop the mast to do it. I don't have a mast raising rig so it's hard to do it alone.
I would like to see it done in person someday tho.
I never climbed a mast or even seen anyone (not counting videos) do it. I'd love to tho, at least once. I'm not a lightweight guy and I'm pretty sure my mast wouldn't like it.
Today, I wanted to replace my Davis wind indicator and put a flag halyard on the spreader but I'll have to drop the mast to do it. I don't have a mast raising rig so it's hard to do it alone.
I would like to see it done in person someday tho.
Doc,
Going up a mast the first time can be thrilling, scary, unique (if in water with the boat swaying under you) & very gratifying. I always take my phone up for picture taking. You need to do this at least once albeit, with a second safety line & someone tailing it.
It's a HOOT MAN!
I forget to mention earlier to Wuf & others, that I have a line & bag attached to my Top Climber. While aloft, if I need extra tools etc., I can lower the bag & thus haul the extras up to me. You never want to have to go down & then, back up.
CR
Going up a mast the first time can be thrilling, scary, unique (if in water with the boat swaying under you) & very gratifying. I always take my phone up for picture taking. You need to do this at least once albeit, with a second safety line & someone tailing it.
It's a HOOT MAN!
I forget to mention earlier to Wuf & others, that I have a line & bag attached to my Top Climber. While aloft, if I need extra tools etc., I can lower the bag & thus haul the extras up to me. You never want to have to go down & then, back up.
CR
I have a good harness, so that's not an issue. Read the reviews on the Harbor Freight unit and they have poor reliability, especially the remote. That's pretty crucial because there is no hard-wired switch to back it up. The thing worse than being trapped aloft is descending via gravity. I will take the unanimous advice posted here and do it "the old fashioned way" having my son do the winch cranking. Slow, but safe. Too bad I can't get his bucket truck down the dock finger. BTW, the yo yo thing is not related to tools; it's parts. I'm just not sure what all I'm going to find up there, particularly since I'll be testing mast light and replacing bulbs. Thinking of taking my VHF antenna off the stern rail and mounting it and my gps up top also. If my experience with other projects holds, multiple trips are all but guaranteed.
Wuf,
Good call pal. I don't know how old your son is but, if your boy were tailing, I would first look at the proper procedure for beginning this.
I always have my safety people wrap 4 lines on the winch. From there, I lead the line around one end of the cleat, while keeping a strain(constant pull while you are going up) on the bitter end side. If you need to stop, he makes the other figure 8 to secure you. Every wrap on a winch or cleat divides the pullback % by around 10-25% total. ea. wrap.
This can make your pull much less.
Every wrap on your winch divides the back-slip back-pull/slip effort around a winch. Blocks(smaller diameter), divide the percentages even more. Then, simply add an extra wrap around one end of the halyard cleat & keep holding in tension while following your ascent then, simply tie it off.
Think Friction..............Tis better to work smart than, to work hard fwanting the same results.
CR
.
Good call pal. I don't know how old your son is but, if your boy were tailing, I would first look at the proper procedure for beginning this.
I always have my safety people wrap 4 lines on the winch. From there, I lead the line around one end of the cleat, while keeping a strain(constant pull while you are going up) on the bitter end side. If you need to stop, he makes the other figure 8 to secure you. Every wrap on a winch or cleat divides the pullback % by around 10-25% total. ea. wrap.
This can make your pull much less.
Every wrap on your winch divides the back-slip back-pull/slip effort around a winch. Blocks(smaller diameter), divide the percentages even more. Then, simply add an extra wrap around one end of the halyard cleat & keep holding in tension while following your ascent then, simply tie it off.
Think Friction..............Tis better to work smart than, to work hard fwanting the same results.
CR
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And use a safety line. I use an ascender on the second, safety line. Wife does the winching while I slide the ascender up. Makes things go faster than her winchong one line and then taking slack up on the second line.
Also, the primary should be an internal halyard, not a block mounted outside. If that block fails...boom boom, out goes the lights.
Enjoy the view
Also, the primary should be an internal halyard, not a block mounted outside. If that block fails...boom boom, out goes the lights.
Enjoy the view
Get,
Good call.
Did you read my post on using a safety halyard & the correct number of wraps? If having a RESPONSIBLE trailer, that should also happen to be a sailor with experience in going aloft, Get can decide to do it himself; and he should be fine.
Personally, I would get quotes from riggers if having to do several changeouts, I feel this would be the better move, less setup, less sweat, quicker fix.
CR
Good call.
Did you read my post on using a safety halyard & the correct number of wraps? If having a RESPONSIBLE trailer, that should also happen to be a sailor with experience in going aloft, Get can decide to do it himself; and he should be fine.
Personally, I would get quotes from riggers if having to do several changeouts, I feel this would be the better move, less setup, less sweat, quicker fix.
CR