On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:18:37 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Um, and his *trawler* has no mast (or, if it has a riding sail, the mast is
so short a fall from the top would likely only result in bruised pride).
What makes him comfortable is a non sequitur. He proffered advice
as if he were some sort of safety expert.


===

I sailed 3 to 4,000 miles a year for over 30 years, on many different
boats, and have gone aloft just about every way that it is possible to
do so, including free climbing. Based on that experience I feel
somewhat qualified to offer an opinion or two, and I stand by my
original assertion.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:18:37 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

Um, and his *trawler* has no mast (or, if it has a riding sail, the mast is
so short a fall from the top would likely only result in bruised pride).
What makes him comfortable is a non sequitur. He proffered advice
as if he were some sort of safety expert.


===

I sailed 3 to 4,000 miles a year for over 30 years, on many different
boats, and have gone aloft just about every way that it is possible to
do so, including free climbing. Based on that experience I feel
somewhat qualified to offer an opinion or two, and I stand by my
original assertion.


And I stand by my rebuttal. I think it was necessary to stand up for
individual freedom and initiative. I never have lived my life via committee
and I never shall. Furthermore, I feel am more qualified than you are to speak
out on the safety issues of ascending the mast because I never retired from a
man's vessel into what amounts to a sea-going truck. I climbed my mast just
hours ago using the folding steps and no safety lines/harness/belay and
suffered no ill.

--
Sir Wilbur

On Friday, November 16, 2012 12:08:35 PM UTC-5, Wilbur Hubbard wrote:







Whatever happened to the mast steps you talked about about a decade or so ago

when you first hauled out?



--

Sir Wilbur

I found a mate nearly exactly a year ago, in the Vero Beach Cruisers Potluck Thanksgiving dinner flea market, to go with one a Seven Seas member had given me right after our wreck in '07.

My trips up the mast in the last few days have taken me right to the top, so I can't tell where they'd fit under the shrouds, as I can't quite reach far enough to stick them there without fear of dropping them. If they can be high enough to let me stand higher than I'd sit, I'll install them right under the shroud.

Being as large as they are means that the step portion will be fairly low, as the width makes the top of the step start well under the top of the shroud.

Ironically, timing wise, I've just had a note from someone who stumbled on one of my old posts somewhere (not here) looking for this type of step; he has 11, with the guard wire clips. 11's not enough for me, unfortunately, so I'll have to pass. They're NIB, including the advertising of the time, so he's had them for a very long while. If I trip over some others which can make up to a full set, I might install them. However, my trips up and down are a piece of cake with our windlass. Couldn't do that single-handing, of course, but that looks very unlikely.

I've also had a chance to climb a friend's mast equipped similarly to yours, I think. Cast aluminum, raise and turn 90°, and they mount, lift, raise and drop, and they're essentially flush, presenting ~1" or so. I wasn't uncomfortable with them, but the boat wasn't moving, either :{)) The guards outside the Pace Edwards (made in a triangle) minimize the potential for a side-slide, and are big enough for my 14's...

One or two more trips up the mast and I'll be finished up there; I'll see if I can use them on one of the trips now that I'm no longer carrying 25 pounds of tools, too!

L8R

Skip

On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:30:37 -0800 (PST), Flying Pig
wrote:

On Friday, November 16, 2012 12:08:35 PM UTC-5, Wilbur Hubbard wrote:







Whatever happened to the mast steps you talked about about a decade or so ago

when you first hauled out?



--

Sir Wilbur

I found a mate nearly exactly a year ago, in the Vero Beach Cruisers Potluck Thanksgiving dinner flea market, to go with one a Seven Seas member had given me right after our wreck in '07.

My trips up the mast in the last few days have taken me right to the top, so I can't tell where they'd fit under the shrouds, as I can't quite reach far enough to stick them there without fear of dropping them. If they can be high enough to let me stand higher than I'd sit, I'll install them right under the shroud.

Being as large as they are means that the step portion will be fairly low, as the width makes the top of the step start well under the top of the shroud.

Ironically, timing wise, I've just had a note from someone who stumbled on one of my old posts somewhere (not here) looking for this type of step; he has 11, with the guard wire clips. 11's not enough for me, unfortunately, so I'll have to pass. They're NIB, including the advertising of the time, so he's had them for a very long while. If I trip over some others which can make up to a full set, I might install them. However, my trips up and down are a piece of cake with our windlass. Couldn't do that single-handing, of course, but that looks very unlikely.

I've also had a chance to climb a friend's mast equipped similarly to yours, I think. Cast aluminum, raise and turn 90°, and they mount, lift, raise and drop, and they're essentially flush, presenting ~1" or so. I wasn't uncomfortable with them, but the boat wasn't moving, either :{)) The guards outside the Pace Edwards (made in a triangle) minimize the potential for a side-slide, and are big enough for my 14's...

One or two more trips up the mast and I'll be finished up there; I'll see if I can use them on one of the trips now that I'm no longer carrying 25 pounds of tools, too!

L8R

Skip

The proper technique is to have a canvas tool bucket on one halyard.
Your "safety man" can fill the bucket and haul it up to you. Gets away
from the problem of arriving at the top of the mast only to discover
that you forgot the light bulb :-(

I also use an electrician lineman's safety belt and snap on when I'm
at the work site. It gives you something to oppose the pressure on the
drill bit or the screw driver (and it makes you feel safe :-)

The canvas bucket, by the way, is not only "salty" but doesn't ding
dents in the mast when it swings around.
--
Cheers,
Bruce

"Bruce" wrote in message
...

The proper technique is to have a canvas tool bucket on one halyard.
Your "safety man" can fill the bucket and haul it up to you. Gets away
from the problem of arriving at the top of the mast only to discover
that you forgot the light bulb :-(

That's exactly what we do. The smaller one I just clip on to my belt, if
the occasion warrants. Otherwise, the bucket comes up via the spinpole
topping lift. I have some scabs healing on my leg from where the line
rubbed both inside and out on the first day's couple of trips up and down...


I also use an electrician lineman's safety belt and snap on when I'm
at the work site. It gives you something to oppose the pressure on the
drill bit or the screw driver (and it makes you feel safe :-)

I don't use that, but I have a line on the chair for just holding me in some
place; if I need back pressure, I use the double-clipped belt from the
galley to go around the mast.


The canvas bucket, by the way, is not only "salty" but doesn't ding
dents in the mast when it swings around.

And, ours is, actually salty, which reminds me that I should probably throw
them in the washing machine while we have one available to us. Our lines
which I just did came out great, but I couldn't possibly have forecast how
dirty they were, taking several times the amount of detergent as used in a
large load to just get the first bubble in the black water, despite the tub
being nowhere near full...

L8R

Skip, not going up today due to the wind

PS our routine is for me to "help" climb with the spin halyard safety line I
have clipped around my chest (not on the chair), and, when I get wherever it
is I'm going, pull up enough line to double-half hitch it around me again;
if I fall from a failure of seat or line, while it won't be comfortable,
I'll not go more than about a foot, max.



--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

On Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:38:45 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

"Bruce" wrote in message
.. .

The proper technique is to have a canvas tool bucket on one halyard.
Your "safety man" can fill the bucket and haul it up to you. Gets away
from the problem of arriving at the top of the mast only to discover
that you forgot the light bulb :-(

That's exactly what we do. The smaller one I just clip on to my belt, if
the occasion warrants. Otherwise, the bucket comes up via the spinpole
topping lift. I have some scabs healing on my leg from where the line
rubbed both inside and out on the first day's couple of trips up and down...


I also use an electrician lineman's safety belt and snap on when I'm
at the work site. It gives you something to oppose the pressure on the
drill bit or the screw driver (and it makes you feel safe :-)

I don't use that, but I have a line on the chair for just holding me in some
place; if I need back pressure, I use the double-clipped belt from the
galley to go around the mast.


The canvas bucket, by the way, is not only "salty" but doesn't ding
dents in the mast when it swings around.

And, ours is, actually salty, which reminds me that I should probably throw
them in the washing machine while we have one available to us. Our lines
which I just did came out great, but I couldn't possibly have forecast how
dirty they were, taking several times the amount of detergent as used in a
large load to just get the first bubble in the black water, despite the tub
being nowhere near full...

L8R

Skip, not going up today due to the wind

PS our routine is for me to "help" climb with the spin halyard safety line I
have clipped around my chest (not on the chair), and, when I get wherever it
is I'm going, pull up enough line to double-half hitch it around me again;
if I fall from a failure of seat or line, while it won't be comfortable,
I'll not go more than about a foot, max.

I've been up masts without steps but I always felt more secure with
steps. A bosin's chair is fine until you need to work on the top of
the mast and then it never seems to be able to get high enough. I had
mast steps with the top two at the same height so that I wasn't
standing on one foot, and high enough so that standing on them my
chest was at the top of the mast. Climb up and belt on and it was
pretty secure. I also used to occasionally wear a harness with a
halyard clipped to it and my wife belaying that end of the halyard so
if I did fall I didn't go far.

When I was anchored in Singapore there was a young French guy there
that used to grab the shrouds on his 25 ft. boat and shinny up the
mast with no equipment - like a monkey up a coconut tree :-)

--
Cheers,
Bruce

On Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:29:40 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

When I was anchored in Singapore there was a young French guy there
that used to grab the shrouds on his 25 ft. boat and shinny up the
mast with no equipment - like a monkey up a coconut tree :-)

===

The key to that technique is "young" and a high strength to weight
ratio. Another way is to grab some halyards, brace your feet against
the mast, and "walk" up - easier when heeled just a bit - and much
easier as a 20 or 30 something than as a retiree.

On Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:19:24 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:29:40 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

When I was anchored in Singapore there was a young French guy there
that used to grab the shrouds on his 25 ft. boat and shinny up the
mast with no equipment - like a monkey up a coconut tree :-)

===

The key to that technique is "young" and a high strength to weight
ratio. Another way is to grab some halyards, brace your feet against
the mast, and "walk" up - easier when heeled just a bit - and much
easier as a 20 or 30 something than as a retiree.

Yes. The guy was maybe 25 years old and looked like an underwear
advertisement :-)
The first time he did it we thought he was showing off but a little
later he changed the halyards and did the same thing.
--
Cheers,
Bruce

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote
He proffered advice as if he were some sort of safety expert.
I set him straight as

As if you were some sort of safety expert?

"paulthomascpa" wrote in message
...

"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote
He proffered advice as if he were some sort of safety expert.
I set him straight as

As if you were some sort of safety expert?

As a layman with more years of mast-climbing experience than he has. To quote
the late, great Paul Harvey, "And, now you know the *rest* of the story."

--
Sir Wilbur