Mast Height Help

[robert gallagher]

I have a problem and need help. My jib halyard is at the top of my mast. Please do not ask how it happened because that will only frustrate my, anger my wife, and the halyard will still be at the top of my mast.How tall is the mast from the deck? I looked in the manual and found the hieght from the water line.I fugure I have two options:use a piece of pvc with a hook to snag the halyard and pull it down, orplace a ladder against the mast (at the spreaders), climb up the ladder and snag the halyard with a shorter piece of pvc with a hook.I want to avoid powering the mast if possible.

 

[Bob B.]

We have all done it!!

I have a hook made from a coathanger. Tape it to your whisker pole or whatever, shinny up the mast to the spreader, stand on the spreader brackets & snag the shackle.Your mast is 25' long. Regards from Canada. (our season is just starting)

 

[Bob B.]

Go to "Ask all sailors" section

Scroll down to "stupid mistake" One suggestion, use a trained monkey!

 

[Ray]

We used a 20' stick of 1/2" pvc pipe

and taped on a clothes hanger made into a hook to reach our halyard on a C22. The mast is 25'. You can couple 2 10' sticks instead of 1 20' piece. Leave the set-up at the dock for the next guy. Use the jib halyard to raise and support the pipe. It's much easier than waving the pipe around like a wizard with no pop and looking dumber than we have to. We already know that or we wouldn't be doing this in the first place.Ray

 

[Michael]

prevention

To prevent this problem from happening again this would be a good time to rig a jib downhaul. It is cheap and easy to do and also makes single-handed sailing much easier.

 

[robert gallagher]

What is a job downhaul

Okay, I can imagine by the name what you are talking about, but how does it work and how do you rig one up?

 

[Tom]

Jib downhaul

A halyard is a line used to pull the sail up. A jib downhaul is the opposite. It's a line attached to the same halyard shackle as the halyard that is used to pull the head of the sail down. It is faster to pull a dowhaul down to lower a sail than it is to grab sail fabric and pull a sail down. The downhaul can be routed through your sail hanks (along the forestay) and then routed via blocks to the cockpit. If you had a downhaul, you'd use that to pull the halyard shackle and halyard down from the top of the mast.

 

[robert gallagher]

Thanks

Thank you to everyone that responded to my problem. The wife and I are going to make a 20' pole out of electrical pvc with a hook at the end. I am going to see if I can find instructions on installing a jib downhaul. I think the downhaul would be a great feature to have on the boat anyway.Fair winds to all.