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two options
This happened to us this past year and I asked the same question here. One option was to get conduit to reach the mast top and snag the halyard. This did not work for me on my Cat22. The other option turned out to be the trick. Find a boat house or, like us, the marina restuarant with a top deck. Motor the boat along side and tie off. Take a pole with a hook on the end and go to the roof top or top deck. Reach out and snag the halyard. Pull it towards you and feed to 1st mate below.
This happened to us this past year and I asked the same question here. One option was to get conduit to reach the mast top and snag the halyard. This did not work for me on my Cat22. The other option turned out to be the trick. Find a boat house or, like us, the marina restuarant with a top deck. Motor the boat along side and tie off. Take a pole with a hook on the end and go to the roof top or top deck. Reach out and snag the halyard. Pull it towards you and feed to 1st mate below.
Climb the mast!
Rick, You did not mention the size of the vessel, but I will assume its big! I lost my halyard up the mast last year and put up an SOS on this and other boards for ideas. Flubber, anti-gravity boots, PVC poles and pulling up next to a tree line were the answers. The bottom line is to climb the mast to retreive! Not having a bosuns seat or confidence to run my youngest son up 35+ feet, I wound up fixing it that through a local rigging shop and had them replace the steaming and anchor light bulbs, grease the upper sheaves and check the fittings both for the VHF radio and wind indicator. Money well spent. The labor was in the climb. I am starting to think that loosing hayards is becomming a right of passage! Good luck Bob 30 Catalina
Rick, You did not mention the size of the vessel, but I will assume its big! I lost my halyard up the mast last year and put up an SOS on this and other boards for ideas. Flubber, anti-gravity boots, PVC poles and pulling up next to a tree line were the answers. The bottom line is to climb the mast to retreive! Not having a bosuns seat or confidence to run my youngest son up 35+ feet, I wound up fixing it that through a local rigging shop and had them replace the steaming and anchor light bulbs, grease the upper sheaves and check the fittings both for the VHF radio and wind indicator. Money well spent. The labor was in the climb. I am starting to think that loosing hayards is becomming a right of passage! Good luck Bob 30 Catalina
Coat hanger
I keep a metal coathanger aboard for this and any number of challenges. Take the coathanger and straighten it out. Bend one end into a hook. Take the other halyard that you still control, and tie a light (maybe 3/16" or 1/4") downhaul line to it so you can get it back down. Attach the coathanger to the shackle end of this halyard. Haul the halyard up the mast to the level of the end of the lost halyard. Use the downhaul line to move the coathanger around until you can snag the lost halyard, or more likely its shackle, and pull it down to the deck. This worked fine for me a few years ago. Took about 5-10 minutes of moving the downhaul around before I caught the lost halyard. Since then, the halyard downhauls on my boat are rigged all the time. Every time I raise the sail with the halyard, the downhaul is attached to the splice attaching the halyard shackle so I can retrieve the halyard it if it comes loose for any reason. Also makes it easier to control the sail when I drop it to the deck (the jib) or into the lazyjacks (main). The coathanger is also useful for removing clogs in thru hulls and snagging those speaker or running light wires that have come astray in small hard to get at places. Good luck!
I keep a metal coathanger aboard for this and any number of challenges. Take the coathanger and straighten it out. Bend one end into a hook. Take the other halyard that you still control, and tie a light (maybe 3/16" or 1/4") downhaul line to it so you can get it back down. Attach the coathanger to the shackle end of this halyard. Haul the halyard up the mast to the level of the end of the lost halyard. Use the downhaul line to move the coathanger around until you can snag the lost halyard, or more likely its shackle, and pull it down to the deck. This worked fine for me a few years ago. Took about 5-10 minutes of moving the downhaul around before I caught the lost halyard. Since then, the halyard downhauls on my boat are rigged all the time. Every time I raise the sail with the halyard, the downhaul is attached to the splice attaching the halyard shackle so I can retrieve the halyard it if it comes loose for any reason. Also makes it easier to control the sail when I drop it to the deck (the jib) or into the lazyjacks (main). The coathanger is also useful for removing clogs in thru hulls and snagging those speaker or running light wires that have come astray in small hard to get at places. Good luck!
Speaker
Tie an old audio speaker, preferably a woofer with a big magnet, to the jib halyard with a downhaul. Raise it and zap the other halyard shackle. It wont cling to the mast if it's aluminum. easy.
Tie an old audio speaker, preferably a woofer with a big magnet, to the jib halyard with a downhaul. Raise it and zap the other halyard shackle. It wont cling to the mast if it's aluminum. easy.
Jeff, but
most shackles are (or should be) stainless steel, which is a non-ferrous (i.e. not magnetic-just as aluminum) metal. How does the speaker magnet thing work? I had a jib halyard shackle that had a ferrous metal spring inside the stainless shackle body. Guess which part of the shackle rusted away...
most shackles are (or should be) stainless steel, which is a non-ferrous (i.e. not magnetic-just as aluminum) metal. How does the speaker magnet thing work? I had a jib halyard shackle that had a ferrous metal spring inside the stainless shackle body. Guess which part of the shackle rusted away...
hmm
interesting question. I guess it depends on the amount of magnetic properties in the steel and the power of the magnet. It worked for me.
interesting question. I guess it depends on the amount of magnetic properties in the steel and the power of the magnet. It worked for me.
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