Mast Climbing (moved)

[Jim Fulton]

I, too, am over 60, and have to get up and down the mast without assistance. My masthead is about 38 feet from the deck. I use the climbing harness that Brion sells and a slightly modified version of the approach he demonstrates in the Going Aloft video. (The video doesn't really address the problem of going up the mast without asistance, except, perhaps, to imply that one shouldn't. However, that's not an option for me.) On my boat, the running end of the main halyard comes down the front of the mast. I use that to hoist a large Harken ratchet block with a becket to the masthead. The hauling line runs from the becket on the block at the masthead down through another block attached to the harness, than back up through the ratchet block and down again. The resulting 2:1 purchase means that I only have to pull up one quarter of my body weight. (See the video for an explanation.) I have a three-foot safety line that runs from my harness to an ascender that runs up my spinnaker halyard. One end of that halyard is secured to the portside mast winch; the other end is cleated. Even under breezy conditions I prefer simply hooking a leg around the mast while going up and down, rather than hooking a tether around it. The tether adds too many complications at the shrouds and spreaders.

Jim Fulton