I was looking into getting one of those flex mast ladders that you hoist right up the mast like your main sail. Does anyone know anything about these or can you reccomend a brand or type of ladder? Any information would be appriciated.
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There are pros and cons to every ladder, climber, boson's chair for servicing mast problems. You're sure to get lots of varying opinions on this subject and I suspect you will find several instances in the archives.
Not wanting to put any more holes in the mast than necessary, I went with the Mast Mate ladder. I am very pleased with the choice I made. Once I got the hang of the "climbing rhythm". trips up and down became fairly easy. Last spring while heading home from FL, I made 6 trips up and down the mast over a couple of days while I replaced the mast head sheaves, anchor light and VHF antenna. Everything was done solo and at age 62, I was quite proud of the accomplishment.
If you do buy one, don't be surprised to get requests to borrow it, even from those who poo-pooed it in the beginning.
Check out this link: www.mastmate.com
Not wanting to put any more holes in the mast than necessary, I went with the Mast Mate ladder. I am very pleased with the choice I made. Once I got the hang of the "climbing rhythm". trips up and down became fairly easy. Last spring while heading home from FL, I made 6 trips up and down the mast over a couple of days while I replaced the mast head sheaves, anchor light and VHF antenna. Everything was done solo and at age 62, I was quite proud of the accomplishment.
If you do buy one, don't be surprised to get requests to borrow it, even from those who poo-pooed it in the beginning.
Check out this link: www.mastmate.com
I agree. It is the safest and easiest way up the mast. After I was dropped 10 feet on to the spreaders of a friends boat I looked far and wide for a safer way up the mast. I have a mast mate for my boat and it is the most comfortable way to work on the mast. I don't trust anyone on the ropes anymore when my life is at stake!!!
Re: Mast Ladder
I have a mast ladder made by the same people who make the BugBuster screens (www.sogeman.com). I do not know if they make the ladders anymore. I have never been up on a bosuns chair and don't want to. The ladder is easy to use and store. My only complaint is tired feet because the top rungs are not re-inforced. I wear good safety shoes to compensate. I plan on reinforcing the rungs myself with plastic.
I always wear a full fall-arresting harness which I secure around the mast as I climb. I also have a spare halyard attached which my wife keeps taut. At the top I clip on and the halyard is secured. All tools are brought up in a bucket with a an attached rope that is attached to me as I climb.
The system works for me but look around your marina for examples on what other people use and ask why. Be sure to use what you are comfortable with and be extra cautious up there. It is a long way to fall.
Scott
I have a mast ladder made by the same people who make the BugBuster screens (www.sogeman.com). I do not know if they make the ladders anymore. I have never been up on a bosuns chair and don't want to. The ladder is easy to use and store. My only complaint is tired feet because the top rungs are not re-inforced. I wear good safety shoes to compensate. I plan on reinforcing the rungs myself with plastic.
I always wear a full fall-arresting harness which I secure around the mast as I climb. I also have a spare halyard attached which my wife keeps taut. At the top I clip on and the halyard is secured. All tools are brought up in a bucket with a an attached rope that is attached to me as I climb.
The system works for me but look around your marina for examples on what other people use and ask why. Be sure to use what you are comfortable with and be extra cautious up there. It is a long way to fall.
Scott
Jeff20919 and others. I sort of went through this last fall, so, FYI, the following: I have a 2003 Hunter 306 with the in-mast Selden main furling, and last fall, after looking at various options, decided on the Mast Mate...I thought that I could use the small "spare luff groove" for holding the ladder to the mast, and then hoist it and secure with the spare main halyard (but with an upgraded halyard line. (It's now used as a 'main topping lift' which is sort of unneeded with the boom vang, though I've used it to hoist my decorative signal flags on Commissioning Day.) Anyway, the Selden specs for the spare luff groove (used with a storm trysail or emergency main, according to Selden) says it is supposed to have a 7.2 mm inner diameter, and the smallest Bainbridge slugs are slightly larger than that. (They advertise item PA016S/2 as 9/32", but they lie. It's the same size as their PA017/2 at about 5/16" and they only say, well, it's our smallest sail slug and 'about' that size, and to me "tough luck.") I thought I had a solution using #6 luff tape (which fits fine!), but after buying 35' for about $70 from a local sail loft, I called to arrange to send it to Gary at Mast Mate (you have to provide your own sail slugs for them to sew on the Mast Mate), he then informed me that his contractor would not sew to a piece of luff tape, but only to sail slugs. He then offered me the mast mate (bare) to have my local yard sew it on the luff tape, but then I'm at (or well over) the price of an ATN climber! Mast Mate's suggestion was to just buy the Bainridge slugs and grind them down myself. Probably pretty easy (if I had a grinding wheel or rotary bench sander), but they say I need to send them 25 slugs (and packaged 2/pack from Bainbridge at about $11/pair = an additional $132!!!) Not a good deal here. BOTTOM LINE: I'm still looking for a way up the mast (by myself....but not on a bosun's chair). I have an unused 32' piece of luff tape. And I still think it's a VERY elegant way up the mast - to be able to use that spare luff groove (in the newer Selden self furling masts) and the spare main halyard with a Mast Mate. I'm just not there yet. (Actually, I get a bit upset every time I think of it, like now. I was led to believe, e-mailing Gary at Mast Mate, that they would take the luff tape as an option to the sail slugsa that wouldn't fit and were expensive and an effort to modify, but only after I purchased the luff tape and had it ready to be sent to them with a $300 check for the Mast Mate, they said they could not do it for me. IF THERE IS INTEREST IN THIS IDEA...AND IT'S MORE THAN ONE POTENTIAL LOST SALE...POSSIBLY MAST MATE WOULD BE MORE AMENABLE TO SERVICING POTENTIAL HUNTER/SELDEN CUSTOMERS.) If there is any interest expressed in replies to this thread, I may try to get over being POed, re-address the issue and contact Mast Mate and see if they will reconsider. ???
ScottA, and others -
An alibi, OK? In deciding on the Mast Mate - not purchased, see my message above (oh, and I don't need any cheese or crackers with my w(h)ine thankyouverymuch!) - I contacted Sogemen about their product. Their reply on 09/11/2008 was, "Mr. Phillips, we are sorry, the production of the Bosun's Ladder has been suspended a few months ago, item will be removed from our web site very soon. Raynald Tremblay Sogeman Inc." It's gone now.
I noted some comparisons at other sites between this product and Mast Mate regarding the added support to the top steps that favored the Mast Mate, similar to your experiences. IF I ever get such an item, I will act in accordance with your procedures: with a safety harness around the mast and a safety line secured from below. Thanks for the information.
An alibi, OK? In deciding on the Mast Mate - not purchased, see my message above (oh, and I don't need any cheese or crackers with my w(h)ine thankyouverymuch!) - I contacted Sogemen about their product. Their reply on 09/11/2008 was, "Mr. Phillips, we are sorry, the production of the Bosun's Ladder has been suspended a few months ago, item will be removed from our web site very soon. Raynald Tremblay Sogeman Inc." It's gone now.
I noted some comparisons at other sites between this product and Mast Mate regarding the added support to the top steps that favored the Mast Mate, similar to your experiences. IF I ever get such an item, I will act in accordance with your procedures: with a safety harness around the mast and a safety line secured from below. Thanks for the information.
Denis, this is from the Mastmate site...
WHAT SAIL TRACKS WON'T IT WORK ON?
WHAT SAIL TRACKS WON'T IT WORK ON?
The only two Marconi mainsail systems that I have not yet found a way to safely secure the Mast Mate are the internal mast roller furled main and the new Bat car track system. In both cases I have recommended to the owners that they install an additional track slightly off-center for not only the use of the Mast Mate, but also for an emergency back-up main and /or storm sail. The mast mate is not safe to use on trackless masts or on masts that have an extreme rake. Recently I have designed a good way (yet untried by me) to attach the Mast Mate to the mast slot in an internal roller furling main system. (see diagram)
Scott, others -
I think you misunderstood me. (At the risk of redundancy...) I think the Mast Mate would be most excellent on the Hunter Selden mast with the roller furling. I think the small "spare luff groove" (see diagram from my Selden Furling Mast Type RA Manual cross-section attached, I hope) would work just fine with some very small sail slug or an appropriate sized luff tape sewn to the Mast Mate. Though the luff groove is pretty small, the 30+ feet of luff tape - or the 25 or so sail slugs - should hold it very well to the mast for stability. A 3/8" (or so) spare halyard, with appropriate connecting hardware, should hoist and secure the mast mate when it is pulled up. The problem is that the smallest sail slugs I find don't fit in the 7.2 mm spare luff groove. (A Bainbridge Slug Slide with Welded Stainless Steel Bail, Part No. A016S, shows dimensions of Diameter 6.5 mm or 9/32 in. and a waist of 2.5 mm or 3/32 in. It SHOULD fit. The item that West Marine sells made by Bainbridge, marked with this part number (A016S), however, is the same as what they have for A017S which has a larger diameter of 8.1 mm or 5/16 in.) So I cannot find a small enough sail slug to fit the spare luff groove. (All other Bainbridge (or other) items seem to be about 8.0 mm or larger. I don't want to grind down 25 of these items from Bainbridge...and cost is VERY expensive anyway, buying them 'two-per' at Waste Marine.) Bottom line is that while writing these past entries to this forum thread, I decided to just buy the Mast Mate (with no slugs or luff tape - they offered me a little price reduction) and then traipse around to some local yard and see who will sew on the #6 luff tape for me. I will pass on what I finally do and the eventual cost.
If there is interest in this approach from others - using the spare luff groove in the furling Selden mast and the spare main halyard for raising a mast Mate ladder - please make a little noise. I am sure that Mast Mate would be interested (perhaps even the SailboatOwners.com chandlery) as would Hunter Marine. (I guess I can't quite believe that no one has tried this before, but if so, no one seems to have made themselves known to Mast Mate or Hunter Customer Service.
I think you misunderstood me. (At the risk of redundancy...) I think the Mast Mate would be most excellent on the Hunter Selden mast with the roller furling. I think the small "spare luff groove" (see diagram from my Selden Furling Mast Type RA Manual cross-section attached, I hope) would work just fine with some very small sail slug or an appropriate sized luff tape sewn to the Mast Mate. Though the luff groove is pretty small, the 30+ feet of luff tape - or the 25 or so sail slugs - should hold it very well to the mast for stability. A 3/8" (or so) spare halyard, with appropriate connecting hardware, should hoist and secure the mast mate when it is pulled up. The problem is that the smallest sail slugs I find don't fit in the 7.2 mm spare luff groove. (A Bainbridge Slug Slide with Welded Stainless Steel Bail, Part No. A016S, shows dimensions of Diameter 6.5 mm or 9/32 in. and a waist of 2.5 mm or 3/32 in. It SHOULD fit. The item that West Marine sells made by Bainbridge, marked with this part number (A016S), however, is the same as what they have for A017S which has a larger diameter of 8.1 mm or 5/16 in.) So I cannot find a small enough sail slug to fit the spare luff groove. (All other Bainbridge (or other) items seem to be about 8.0 mm or larger. I don't want to grind down 25 of these items from Bainbridge...and cost is VERY expensive anyway, buying them 'two-per' at Waste Marine.) Bottom line is that while writing these past entries to this forum thread, I decided to just buy the Mast Mate (with no slugs or luff tape - they offered me a little price reduction) and then traipse around to some local yard and see who will sew on the #6 luff tape for me. I will pass on what I finally do and the eventual cost.
If there is interest in this approach from others - using the spare luff groove in the furling Selden mast and the spare main halyard for raising a mast Mate ladder - please make a little noise. I am sure that Mast Mate would be interested (perhaps even the SailboatOwners.com chandlery) as would Hunter Marine. (I guess I can't quite believe that no one has tried this before, but if so, no one seems to have made themselves known to Mast Mate or Hunter Customer Service.
Dennis, you're idea is actually a good one, if the luff tape is strong enough, although I can't see why it wouldn't be.
I only put the link as you seemed to come across as though they had not even thought of trying to accomodate the furling mast. Their idea woulkd mean having to take out the main if you ever wanted to go up the mast, which would be a pain. Keep trying.
I only put the link as you seemed to come across as though they had not even thought of trying to accomodate the furling mast. Their idea woulkd mean having to take out the main if you ever wanted to go up the mast, which would be a pain. Keep trying.
For what it’s worth I paid a local contractor with a bucket lift/cherry picker to come down to the marina during his lunch hour. I went up the mast in the bucket with all my tools, safely and in comfort and it only cost me $50.00 cash. I was able to tie up to a concrete pier allowing the truck access to my boat.
Something you might want to consider, for the price and safety.
Something you might want to consider, for the price and safety.
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