Climbing my mast safely

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ash2020

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I need to climb my mast to do a bit of work at the top. She's a Hunter Medina 20' so only a short climb. I've done it several times on larger boats and I have all the gear, ascenders, harness, etc. I'm not worried about the procedure and will have an assistant with spare halyard attached. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, this is probably very silly but on such a lightweight boat (overgrown dinghy) is there any danger of the boat falling over? The keel will be down and is very heavy. Secondly, am I safer on the swinging mooring or tied up alongside a pontoon? Thanks.
 
Yes
No, pontoon is safer

While it may not tip right over, it could heal to a good angle. At this angle stuff has a greater risk of going wrong.
If you were injured, being on a swinging mooring would be more hassle than alongside. Alongside you can secure the boat with its mooring lines against tipping either way.

Could you pull the mast down to pontoon level and do the work that way?
 
Last edited:
RE: a Hunter Medina 20' s
Run her up on a beach.
Let the tide go out.
Use the halyard to pull her over .
Do the work on the masthead standing safely on Terra Firma.
Let go the halyard and prop her up.
Motor off the beach when the tide comes in.
That's the way that used to do it.
I see that you have 5 metre tides in Fowey.
Alternatively,tie up to the wharf and use a ladder at low tide.

gary
1758542256562.jpeg
 
RunAgroundHard said:
Yes
No, pontoon is safer

While it may not tip right over, it could heal to a good angle. At this angle stuff has a greater risk of going wrong.
If you were injured, being on a swinging mooring would be more hassle than alongside. Alongside you can secure the boat with its mooring lines against tipping either way.

Could you pull the mast down to pontoon level and do the work that way?
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'm thinking that maybe it would be much safer to try careening her, with the keel up. I should be able to pull her over where the walkway goes up from the pontoon, at low tide. I've measured and it's not quite high enough at the dockside, by about 8 feet so I shouldn't need to pull much of an angle.
 
garymalmgren said:
RE: a Hunter Medina 20' s
Run her up on a beach.
Let the tide go out.
Use the halyard to pull her over .
Do the work on the masthead standing safely on Terra Firma.
Let go the halyard and prop her up.
Motor off the beach when the tide comes in.
That's the way that used to do it.
I see that you have 5 metre tides in Fowey.
Alternatively,tie up to the wharf and use a ladder at low tide.

gary
View attachment 199787
Click to expand...
Thanks. I don't fancy the beach approach, because of maybe damaging the hull, but I will see how close I can get by running her under the walkway up from the pontoon, at low tide (12.30 tomorrow). We're on the opposite side from Fowey, at Polruan. Much quieter!
 
Dont ignore the fact that relying on Tide .. imposes a time constraint on you ... its 'sods law' that you find something that means more time needed ... so careening her over - may end up not being a wise choice.

I'd go for the tied up to pontoon personally ...

The mast should be deck-stepped ? Would it not be better to pivot it down and then you can work on it as long as you like ??
 
When I had an Olympics Star class and needed to do work at the masthead, I asked a smallish ship in port to moor alongside them and access the mast top from one of their decks, they always agreed. Only problem you then have all the ship crew watching you :)
 
In the past I had a 22ft race boat. The halyard came off the top sheave and being 3/4 rigged there was no way of getting to the mast head. Simple solution was to go alongside a larger yacht and lift the mast and lay on deck. Easy to do and no time constraint.
 
Refueler said:
Dont ignore the fact that relying on Tide .. imposes a time constraint on you ... its 'sods law' that you find something that means more time needed ... so careening her over - may end up not being a wise choice.

I'd go for the tied up to pontoon personally ...

The mast should be deck-stepped ? Would it not be better to pivot it down and then you can work on it as long as you like ??
Click to expand...
It would, but I have no-one but myself to do it. My partner is nervous about helping in case something goes wrong and she doesn't know what to do. We've just moved here so I'm Billy no mates at the moment.
 
Roberto said:
When I had an Olympics Star class and needed to do work at the masthead, I asked a smallish ship in port to moor alongside them and access the mast top from one of their decks, they always agreed. Only problem you then have all the ship crew watching you :)
Click to expand...
I don't think I'd like that because then they would see that I'd forgotten to put the backstay on!
 
Refueler said:
A Medina 20 mast is not going to be that much hassle for two people to lower on its pivot ??

My 10yr old son and myself used to lower / raise my Snapdragon 23 mast ... without any extra gear ...
Click to expand...
It's quite lightweight and all I have to do is put the backstay on so I'm reluctant to spend hours lowering and raising the mast for a 2 minute job. Also, I'ts just myself to do it. She's coming out of the water in 4 weeks.
 
It’s not acting like a pratt to seek advise or information, the exact opposite, quite the opposite. You now have a number of ideas to help you decide how to move forward. All the best with the backstay.
 
heres the maths you need
The change in centre of gravity is your mass (m) divided by your mass plus the mass of the boat (M) as that is the total mass of the system. Assuming you are 80kg and the boat is about 860kg (sailboat data says thats about right) then:

80/(80+860) is about 0.085. So if you go up a meter, the COG rises about 8.5cm. I don't know how long your mast is, but even if it was 10m which I am sure it isnt, you'd raise the COG by 85cm. This will definitely affect stability, but it won't invert or anything. Funnily enough just being up the mast won't actually make the boat tip, but it will be less resistant to waves / wind etc. So chose a calm day and ideally be somewhere the boat won't be hit by lots of wake and you'll be ok. And put the keel down!
 
toothless said:
heres the maths you need
The change in centre of gravity is your mass (m) divided by your mass plus the mass of the boat (M) as that is the total mass of the system. Assuming you are 80kg and the boat is about 860kg (sailboat data says thats about right) then:

80/(80+860) is about 0.085. So if you go up a meter, the COG rises about 8.5cm. I don't know how long your mast is, but even if it was 10m which I am sure it isnt, you'd raise the COG by 85cm. This will definitely affect stability, but it won't invert or anything. Funnily enough just being up the mast won't actually make the boat tip, but it will be less resistant to waves / wind etc. So chose a calm day and ideally be somewhere the boat won't be hit by lots of wake and you'll be ok. And put the keel down!
Click to expand...
Wow! That's fantastic. I hadn't thought of actually working it out! I'm 75kg and the mast is 8m but I'll be standing at about 7m. I think you're right , she weighs in at about 860kg. Tomorrow is calm and I can tie up at a pontoon so I think I'm good to go. Thanks again. I'll get my heirs to contact you if it all goes tits up! :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
I always used a mast ladder. They go into the main track and you can pull them up. Made of webbing with loops left and right to climb up. Run a prussik knot along with you on the main halyard (tie it to something at the base to put some tension on it), and clink into the safety on the prussik. Bring a bosuns chair, too for comfort.

Prussik knots slide up and down easily if they're not under tension, but as soon as you fall, they catch you.

P1110171.png.webpmastladder_view2_1200.jpg.webp

Edit: I just saw the backstay isn't up. That might make it a little tricky. I think your best bet is to lower the mast then. It's not a difficult job, I think you're just uncomfortable doing it because you might be used to it? But once you've done it a few times it's very simple. On a 20ft boat they are not heavy and you can put them up yourself super easy.
 
Don't evrn thinkl nof climbing the mast on a 20ft boat. Especially in the water. the boat will not have enough stability to handle your weight near the top of the mast.
Now my 21fter (TS) underwent a stability test for self righting.The bow and stern were tied across between 2 jetties and the mast was pulled by halyard until the mast was horizontal. The test was to measure force required to hold it horizontal. Around 30kg at the top of the cap shrouds (fractional rig boat). it did take a lot more force to pull it from vertical to horizontal and less force once down.
Now your 20 ft might be a lot more stiff than my 21fter but these figures should show that yopur 80 to 100 kg up the mast will definitely be unstable. Taking just a small wake wave to start an oscillation that will be terrifying.
If you can find a way like I did to restrain the boat so that you can pull sideways to drag mast down you may be able to do a quick job on top. But it will take a few helpers.
So best option is to set your self up for easy safe mast lowering using 2 poles for A frame and a stern crutch arrangement. With mast down in crutch you may be able to maneuver the boat so mast top is over a jetty or pontoon. (take a step ladder) This means you don't need to remove the base connection to move mast forward. Although you would do that for winter storage.
You will always need to work on mast top or need to lower and stow mast. Set up properly,easy single handed, lots of info on this forum. You won't regret it. (I reckon I can drop my mast in 10 minutes and raise in similar time and I would have done it 100 times. ) ol'will
 
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