Being somewhat acrophobia I have a Brion Toss designed riggers harness. It
is very comfortable and you can't fall out of it but it ain't cheap. Also a
pair of Petzl ascenders. The right hand one is hooked to one of the harness
chest D-rings and the other to some webbing for the feet. So far I have
only used it to replace the halyard on my 60' flag pole but I was able to
make it to the top by myself using the "inch worm" technique without getting
totally exhausted and worked comfortably and did a little sight seeing up
there for a while. That rig is going to have a special place on Rutu.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach at gmail dotcom wrote in message
...
Well, up the mast, anyway!

This has probably been covered to death, but I think I recall discussions
in this space before about improvements on the typical bosun chair to the
effect of good mountain climbing gear.

Looking at climbing harnesses on REI, a frequently mentioned retailer of
such stuff, the harnesses I see don't look the least bit like I'd have
expected.

Are there any here with experience in this sort of gear? What should we
look for for up-the-mast use (in place of the bosun chair, of which I have
a fine one, but this is supposed to be far superior in comfort and
safety)?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip and Lydia, off to the boat on Friday to work during the holiday week

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Being a former vertical caver, I use a system of prusik knots to ascend
my mast. The advantages of prusiks is that they are inexpensive and
nearly foolproof. You must have a seat harness which you can tie from
a piece of 1" webbing as a so-called "diaper sling". You must also
have a chest harness attached to the seat harness. You have a prusik
on each foot and one on your chest. You sit relaxed hanging from the
chest loop, raise each foot prusik in sequence then stand up while
sliding the chest prusik. Sounds complicated but I have climbed out of
a 1000' pit this way.
I personally do not like mechanical ascendars because they allow
foolish people to get in trouble. They seem too easy to use and I have
seen people make serious mistakes with them.
Remember, you MUST have both a chest and seat harness and they MUST be
attached to each other at the front, otherwise you can end up hanging
by your feet.