Commodore Joe Redcloud© wrote:


I just picked up Hal Roth's "How to Sail Around the World" and while
there's a fair bit of repetition from his earlier books, it's a good
solid compendium. I noticed that all his boats had and have pretty
solid-looking mast steps. I would say this is the way to go for a
cruiser unless there's a compelling reason not to just resort to an
ATN Climber or some similar piece of mountaineering kit.

R.


There are a few drawbacks to mast steps, not the least of which is
galvanic corrosion weakening the mast. The mounting plate may prevent
you from seeing the damage until the mast collapses.


Commodore Joe Redcloud©
I heard the biggest complaint is noise in strong wnds.

Another possibility is to use an "Etrier" which is a sort of webbing
ladder that you could hang from your halyard. You would make it from
1" tubular webbing with steps tied every 2'. You might even find a
cable ladder from a climbing supply place. However, climbing either
one is harder than it sounds. The admonition about a safety rope
strongly applies here.
For that matter, why not have holes for steps pre-drilled in your mast
but do not put the steps on. Instead, they'd have captive studs that
would slip into a slot with an opening at the top of the slot into
which the stud would fit and then would be pulled about 1/2" down into
the slot. You would then need very few steps as you would climb and
pull up the ones below you as you went up. I dont really think this
would work well.