Winching up the Mast

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Wufibugs;

From a former dealer side. First, have someone to winch you up and down with experience. If not could mean your life and no this is not funny but very serious as you deal with experienced. Suggest two people as it is not an easy task. Suggest the following.

1. Run halyard through jam cleat and wincxh and when tying off, keep line thru jam
cleat.
2. On bosuns chair, ensure all straps are on and even the one between the legs.
3. No one moves on the boat as it will go over and scare the crap out of you.
4. Have a messenger line with you. Make sure no one is underneath when raising
tools as they could drop and hit someone on the head and so on.
5. Use another halyard attached to you when up for safety if the first came loose.
6. Many shackle the halyard to the bosun chair. I highly suggest tying instead and double tie for safety.
7. When coming down, many turns around the rope clutch/winch and come down at slow speed.

 

[wufibugs]

Though not a sailor, my son is linesman for a cable company so he has pretty good skills when it comes to climbing poles. CR, that was good info on using the winch for this purpose as I do not normally use 4 full wraps under normal conditions. I'm not really sure about the H31 mast cap. Presently there is not a spare halyard set up but if there is an available sheave up there, I will attempt to drop an internal spare halyard.
As to having someone else do the work, it would cost way more than I have especially given the number of small projects I will try to attack. Besides, as someone above said, knowing how to go aloft is a useful skill for someone with offshore aspirations [assuming I am still respirating by the time I can afford a blue water boat].
Dave, I do have a bosun's chair that I found in the locker. Was just not comfortable with that fabric being all there was between me and the deck so I got a really overkill [if there is such a thing] harness. My son also has a first rate harness for his work, so that just not an issue. I too like the idea of a knot better than the shackle, though I'll leave that decision to the guy who climbs poles for living.