[C320-list] raising a bosun's chair

[Koen Bennebroek]

hi Jeff,

thanks for the recap and your feedback. I plan to try
out a couple of things this weekend while at the boat.


I want to see how hard it is for my other crew to
raise me up the mast on just the mainsheet winch. I
also want to try the method of routing the main
halyard forward, over the bow roller and back onto the
anchor winch. There is a cleat there, but I guess that
is not designed to have much holding power, so I'll
see if there's something else to be used. If not, this
may be a 3-person only excercise, with an extra person
on the safety line.

As for Stan's suggestion of the ascending knot, I
think this does require some practice and since I
don't plan to go up the mast on a weekly basis, I
believe this requires a little bit of practice each
and every time I go up...(and I'm not a rock climber).

I like the idea of bringing an FRS radio, especially
if the other crew is in the cockpit. If the other crew
is right beneath at the anchor locker it may not be
necessary.

-Koen

--- Jeffrey Hare <catalina at thehares.com> wrote:

> Koen,
> 
>    For what it's worth (at this point):
> 
> 1) We use the bosuns chair clipped to the main
> halyard as the primary lift.
> 
> 2) As a secondary, the person wears a harness
> clipped to the spinnaker
> halyard for the safety.
> 
> 
> Since the main halyard goes to the starboard side
> cabin top winch, and the
> spin halyard goes to the port cabin top winch, the
> process is simple and
> safe.  The person doing the work down below can do
> without moving far.
> 
> 
> As Chris Holt Mentioned:
> ========================
> 
> Going UP: Crank up about 5' using main halyard, 
> pull up slack on spin
> halyard.  Repeat until you're where you need to be.
> 
> To come down, release the spin halyard and the
> person pulls down ~5 or 6
> feet of it and reclamp stopper (or put 4 wraps on
> the drum and secure
> through the self-tailer.)
> 
> Then ease the person down by tailing the main
> halyard on the mainsheet
> winch.
> 
> 
> To make the process easier:
> ===========================
> 
> 1) We always send the person up the mast with an FRS
> radio (on an attached
> lanyard) so that we can communicate without
> shouting.
> 
> 2) We nearly always have tools going up tied on
> lanyards and attached to the
> bosun's chair.
> 
> 3) We nearly always have a spare line tied to the
> person going up so that
> they can drop it down and pull up other tools/parts
> as needed.
> 
> 
> My personal *Opinions* on other methods:
> ========================================
> The process I use is the one that ASA teaches. 
> (Except they teach using one
> person on the main and one on the safety line.) 
> Mast gadgets like the
> ladder steps, self-climbing doohickies, etc, are
> still probably safer than
> the winch approach, and some are clearly easier than
> others.
> 
> While an Ascending knot is not a bad idea (if the
> person going up the mast
> is an experienced climber).  Knot that it may not
> always be as easy to use
> on a boat where the mast may be causing you to swing
> around.  Mountains
> don't try to swing you around like a pitching mast
> does. :) I frequently
> have to hang on with my hands and legs to keep me
> positioned where I need to
> be while going up and down, and to have to use two
> hands to run the ascender
> is a pair of hands I don't always have conveniently
> available.  I'm not sure
> how good an ascender knot is for a safety line
> though... (My brother is, and
> he didn't suggest it for what that's worth last time
> I went up the mast).
> 
> While the windlass might be easier from a muscle
> standpoint, it's not safe
> enough for me or any of my crew with no sheet
> stoppers or convenient safety
> line management right there at the windlass.  People
> clearly have success
> with this approach, but it's not for me.   It's your
> life, live it however
> you dare.. :)
> 
> -Jeff H.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Koen Bennebroek
> [mailto:vergaar2004-catalina at yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 3:17 PM
> To: C320-List
> Subject: [C320-list] raising a bosun's chair
> 
> I finally got a bulb for our deck light half-way up
> the mast. Now I just
> need to get it in. WM had a pocket bosun's chair on
> sale, so I ordered it.
> Now the question becomes, how to get it up there? We
> have a spinaker halyard
> that we can backup with the main halyard for safety
> (or vice-versa). Can we
> use the anchor windlass for this? Or are there other
> preferred methods, like
> routing it over the 2 jib winches? Is using 2
> halyards enough safety or are
> there other safety precautions to think of?
>  
> Any advice is highly appreciated!
>  
> Thanks, Koen
> (BigCat, #224, 1995)
> 
> 
>