Going up the mast, a better way
 

My Sail Cradle lazy jack kit has arrived and I really want to install
it. There is no way I am going to have a climbing harness ready any
time soon for climbing with prusiks. I hate Bosuns chairs basically
because I do not trust anybody else to raise me up.
So.........I am going to borrow a cable ladder from a fellow caver.
This is kinda like a rope ladder but the rungs are just wide enough
for a single foot and it is made from thin ss cable with tubular
Aluminum rungs between the side cables. I will use the halyard to
pull it up and then tie the other halyard round my self as a safety
and go up. There is a trick to climbing such a ladder, you put one
foot in from the front and the next in from the back (heel first) and
this prevents you from sagging backwards much. We'll see if I can
conquer my fear of heights at my advanced age as I used to do.

Going up the mast, a better way
 

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:13:18 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

My Sail Cradle lazy jack kit has arrived and I really want to install
it. There is no way I am going to have a climbing harness ready any
time soon for climbing with prusiks. I hate Bosuns chairs basically
because I do not trust anybody else to raise me up.
So.........I am going to borrow a cable ladder from a fellow caver.
This is kinda like a rope ladder but the rungs are just wide enough
for a single foot and it is made from thin ss cable with tubular
Aluminum rungs between the side cables. I will use the halyard to
pull it up and then tie the other halyard round my self as a safety
and go up. There is a trick to climbing such a ladder, you put one
foot in from the front and the next in from the back (heel first) and
this prevents you from sagging backwards much. We'll see if I can
conquer my fear of heights at my advanced age as I used to do.

The problem with that approach is getting any work done while you are
still standing on the ladder and holding on. Why not go up on a
bosuns chair using a separate prusick knot under your control for a
safety?

You can also go up by yourself on a bosuns chair secured only with a
prusick knot, using a second prusick going to a foot loop. The
procedure is to step up on the foot loop; slide the bosun's prusick
up; then sit down on the bosun's chair while you advance the foot loop
prusick; repeat.

Going up the mast, a better way
 

Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:13:18 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

My Sail Cradle lazy jack kit has arrived and I really want to install
it. There is no way I am going to have a climbing harness ready any
time soon for climbing with prusiks. I hate Bosuns chairs basically
because I do not trust anybody else to raise me up.
So.........I am going to borrow a cable ladder from a fellow caver.
This is kinda like a rope ladder but the rungs are just wide enough
for a single foot and it is made from thin ss cable with tubular
Aluminum rungs between the side cables. I will use the halyard to
pull it up and then tie the other halyard round my self as a safety
and go up. There is a trick to climbing such a ladder, you put one
foot in from the front and the next in from the back (heel first) and
this prevents you from sagging backwards much. We'll see if I can
conquer my fear of heights at my advanced age as I used to do.

The problem with that approach is getting any work done while you are
still standing on the ladder and holding on. Why not go up on a
bosuns chair using a separate prusick knot under your control for a
safety?

You can also go up by yourself on a bosuns chair secured only with a
prusick knot, using a second prusick going to a foot loop. The
procedure is to step up on the foot loop; slide the bosun's prusick
up; then sit down on the bosun's chair while you advance the foot loop
prusick; repeat.



If the mast has been up for a while, I'd take it down and inspect,
paint, and lubricate everything.

I'd also consider installing a tabernacle hinge at the base, which would
allow you to never have to have that issue ever again. There's one on
this Catalina 30:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yR2g...e=channel_page

It's amazing how many masts out there have been up for 30+ years and no
one ever checks anything.

Going up the mast, a better way
 

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:10:12 -0700, Jim wrote:

It's amazing how many masts out there have been up for 30+ years and no
one ever checks anything.

It is how you rig it. A scows are 38 feet, however big a mast? Fifty
feet? In any case it takes three guys five minutes to put it up or
down. They trailer those things.

Casady