A big ??????? bird has damaged my windvane as well as leaving its calling cards on the spreaders. Has anyone got any experience going aloft on an Hunter 28.5. I'm not afraid of heights but I am still interested in the safest way to approach the job. Thanks, Lee
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Our technique . . .
Use your main halyard as primary and your jib or spinnaker halyard as the backup, keeping both attached to the bosuns chair at all times. Use your halyard winch to haul a lightweight person part way up, secure the main halyard, and then take in the slack on the jib halyard. Continue doing this all the way up. When you get beyond the point where the jib halyard is attached to the mast on a boat with a fractional rig, you will actually have to let out the jib halyard a bit to let the person get to the top of the mast. Reverse the process coming down. Make sure the halyards are run through a line brake or other device to keep the halyard from letting go at the wrong time. We also attach a tether off our safety harness to the bosuns chair, run it around the mast and back again to the bosuns chair to keep the person from swinging if the boat gets rocked by waves. A third person to keep an eye on the climber while one of you is grinding on a winch is also a good idea. Hope this helps. Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5
Use your main halyard as primary and your jib or spinnaker halyard as the backup, keeping both attached to the bosuns chair at all times. Use your halyard winch to haul a lightweight person part way up, secure the main halyard, and then take in the slack on the jib halyard. Continue doing this all the way up. When you get beyond the point where the jib halyard is attached to the mast on a boat with a fractional rig, you will actually have to let out the jib halyard a bit to let the person get to the top of the mast. Reverse the process coming down. Make sure the halyards are run through a line brake or other device to keep the halyard from letting go at the wrong time. We also attach a tether off our safety harness to the bosuns chair, run it around the mast and back again to the bosuns chair to keep the person from swinging if the boat gets rocked by waves. A third person to keep an eye on the climber while one of you is grinding on a winch is also a good idea. Hope this helps. Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5
....and don't forget
Gary, having kept my wife up the mast for over 5 hours this weekend, I would add only one other suggestion to your great response. That would be to secure a light line to the bosuns chair, hanging down to the deck, for hoisting up all those little parts and tools that are sure to get forgotten during the original hoist.
Gary, having kept my wife up the mast for over 5 hours this weekend, I would add only one other suggestion to your great response. That would be to secure a light line to the bosuns chair, hanging down to the deck, for hoisting up all those little parts and tools that are sure to get forgotten during the original hoist.
Negotiation Time
I forgot to mention that when you have your wife at the top of the mast and she's ready to come down is a great time for negotiation. Something like. . . "I'll let you down, but I don't ever want to do dishes again for the rest of my life." Talk about leverage!
Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5
I forgot to mention that when you have your wife at the top of the mast and she's ready to come down is a great time for negotiation. Something like. . . "I'll let you down, but I don't ever want to do dishes again for the rest of my life." Talk about leverage!
Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5While you're up there...
Believe it or not, putting 1 foot long plastic alligators (Tie-wrapped on - You can buy them at any dime store in the kids toys area) on the spreaders has eliminated the bird problem on our 30' Hunter. People laugh when they see them, but when I show them my deck compared to the boats on either side of me, they stop laughing!!!
Believe it or not, putting 1 foot long plastic alligators (Tie-wrapped on - You can buy them at any dime store in the kids toys area) on the spreaders has eliminated the bird problem on our 30' Hunter. People laugh when they see them, but when I show them my deck compared to the boats on either side of me, they stop laughing!!!
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