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wrote:
Situ: 6T full keel ketch with fouled or damaged mizzen halyard sheave,
air draft of main 50', same of mizzen approx 40'. I wish to incline
her alongside a high pier, for obvious reasons. I have done this with
a smaller sloop using a convenient mainmast halyard, but feel in this
situ that risks jamming another halyard (pulling it hard athwartships
off its sheave & creating 2 problems instead of solving one). There is
no spinnaker or other external-blocked halyard suitable for this.

If anyone has done this (only if you have, please!), I could use a
proven/practical rigging suggestion.

FWIW going aloft on the mizzen isn't an option view only a light
topping lift is available there.

Frank

Inclining the boat to reach the masthead from a high pier does not
seem like a good idea to me. Maybe you should hire a cherry picker
with a man bucket to go up the twenty feet, whatever, difference?

You still have to worry about wakes, etc rolling the boat.

Climbing the mizzen can be accomplished using the main's halyard to
assist, if it is bridled around the mizzen and the man climbs from
abaft, using his grip to assist the ascent and a second bridle to
assist surmounting the spreaders. Suitable mountain gear carabiners
are safe. A topping lift on a boat that size should be strong enough
to safely support a crew member, or yourself. Mine, on a 29 footer,
is strong enough to lift a MOB easily, using the main sheet tackle
on the boom end. Test yours by hanging two or three men an inch or
two above the deck.

Ascender gear can reliably clutch a wire topping lift. A line taken
to the top can be secured to assist further in the descent, to be
lowered once the halyard works, or used if another trip be
neccessitated, perhaps by a lack of parts.

A bridle made from lines flipped over the shrouds above the
spreaders using the main halyard to lift them into flipping position
chould also assist getting part way up, or at least to slow the
descent of any otherwise unassisted descender, should ascencion
prove unnerving and the grip on the mast unbreakable. He will
eventually tire and start to slide down.

The sail track or luff groove is likely strong enough to support a
well engineered grip system for ascent and descent. An appropriate
bolt head twisted in the groove can hold an impressive weight.

Yes, I have climbed a mast using improvised means. Once you are
above 15 feet or so, the height doesn't matter any more, if the
rolling does. A couple of hundred bucks should be enough inducement
for any young buck, or even a scared girl to go up there, towing a
tool bucket line. A tether loop around the mast should be used to
prevent excessive excursion should the Bob detach from the mast and
threaten to ding it swinging with the rolls on the end of his
skyline, or cause excessive g loads on the rig, flogging in the breeze.

A comfortable bosun's chair with stirrups is a neccessity.

Be prepared to push the masthead fitting up using a lifted top mast
jack rig, if you will need to get at the sheave axels to replace a
sheave.

I'd offer, if I wasn't getting old with a bad back and wonky
shoulder. Hell, for enough money, I'd do it anyway.

You should be prepared to do all this at sea in heavy weather,
anyway. You could need it someday.

Next time, you should have a spare halyard rigged, damn the extra
weight, you want to fly a fisherman anyway, right?

Why not unstep the mast, using the main halyard to lower it?

Terry K

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