Cherry Picker

[Strathglass]

I have one of those mast ladders which run up the luff grove which you are welcome to borrow.

I have various pieces and it can cover up to 50ft plus.

I'm in Cambuslang every so often.

Cheers

Iain

 

[jimi]

Cheaper to use a dinghy

 

[raven]

If your in a yard it may be worth asking around to see if anyone else has "up mast" jobs to do - the cost can be shared and the benefit of additional hands is very useful.

I've got to get up my mast and have been considering exactly the same course of action - the budding Ellen McArthurs are quick to point out that you should winch yourself up in a bosuns chair because you cant hire a cherry picker in the middle of the South Atlantic.

 

[claymore]

Thats a kind offer - the cherry picker is looking good with the potential to have a couple of others wanting to use it.

 

[longjohnsadler]

Many years ago I built a playship (scale model of the square rigger Matthew which John Cabot sailed from Bristol to America in 1497) in a big retail park on the Clyde near Govan. Actually somebody built it in sections in a warehouse in Wales and I put it together on site. Anyway the mast was about ooh 40 feet tall so I had to go on a cherry-picker course (Health and Safety) to access it. Great machines but you need a bit of practice.
The cheaper option mast access tool is a 'Parahandy'...

 

[claymore]

Ahh - so you are obviously warm and drawing breath?

I find it rather hard to believe that a man of your not inconsiderable height would need a cherry picker

Para- bless him is a clumsy big sod at the best of times - standing somewhere near the mast foot being pelted with all the stuff he drops is not my idea of fun

 

[longjohnsadler]

Well I did use the word 'tool'...

I've just come back from darkest central Ireland. What's all this about delivery cruises?

 

[tangofour]

[ QUOTE ]
I should get the job done in a day without much bother I would have thought, as long as I get together the bits and pieces I'm likely to need in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

How long did you say you had been sailing? 10:1 you'll end up finding a left handed floggle toggle at the masthead that really wasn't there last time you looked. In the midst of all of it you'll drop the number 13 spanner it will hit the deck and bounce into the water, sinking irretrievably into the mud. Having put 3 number 13's in the toolbag you took up the mast you will find that the nuts are actually 14mm.

We fitted a replacement anemometer and vane to Cariad a while back. It took 3 days and iirc 5 trips up the mast by my 'crew' and ended up involving welding a new mounting tag onto the 10mm thick s/steel mast truck.

BTW the crew did drop a 13mm spanner from the masthead. I could not believe it when the spanner bounced off the deck, hit the kicker, ricocheted into the cockpit and rattled around there. *Everything* I drop ends up in the drink.

 

[Cornishman]

Try The Royal Hussars

"Cherrypicker" - Said to have been derived from an incident in the Peninsular War when the 11th Hussars were engaged in an action with the French in a cherry orchard. Now, by virtue of their cherry-coloured trousers, the amalgamated Regiment of The Royal Hussars took the old 11th Hussar nickname of the 'Cherrypickers'.