How to climb the Mast Single Handed!?

<<<< Regarding prussic knots, they are a PITA - tricky to tie neatly, difficult to move. >>>>

I've been using Prussic and P/loops since early 70's and never had a problem BUT have seen an ascender fail - chap broke his back and that persuaded me never to trust mechanical aids to climb - With regard to climbing at sea, which will ineveitably be in awkward conditions, the less equipment you need the better -
 
some more details for going up the mast ! the climbing ropes, which i have bought are expensive if you buy a standard rope size but if you look for some remaining pieces of about 12-15 m, the price is much less as no one of the climbers like to use ! the main rope for climbing is with less elastisity (non-stretch) and the second, safety rope is elastic! the ascenders and figure 8, i bought from ebay !
do not use shackle ??? - i use shackles with sufficient SWL !
prussik knots - very easy to tie and work good going up and down the rope but there is a trick - the rope should be bar tied! also the size of rope for prussik knot should be smaller or at least 75% from climbing one ! or if your climbing rope is 10 or 12 mm the rope for prussik should be 6 or 8 mm max !
my safe line is attached to safety rope with prussik knot !
once on the top ot the mast, having two ropes, is very helpful as sometimes, you need a few more centimeters to work more comfortable and you can move from one rope to the other! usualy, one of the rope is fix forward and the other, is on the back side of the mast

one more tip - it is better to have a mobile with you, when you going up, you never know what will happend once up

all the above is based on my personal experience and reach up to this way of climbing, firstly have prepared/tested a climbing ladder from cargo slings (used on board of the vessel for loading different types of general cargo - very strong material) but not happy with the outcome and later prepared the aluminium steps but the idea of fitting the steps on the mast, i found, is too much time consuming for me.

now i have and do not use, the ladder of about 12 m and ready for fixing aluminum steps (about 15 pcs not sure)
maybe someone can have a time to fix the steps on his mast
or wont to use the ladder, but take in mind - i am in greece !

good luck !

http://www.neatcss.com/
 
I bought webbing and made up a ladder which is hoisted up the track on sail slides.
Works Ok for me. Mind you if I was making another I would include some sort of rigid step(alloy tube over the step part of the webbing) as the webbing tends to crush the feet.
 
For climbing the mast I keep a 10 mm climbers’ low stretch ‘static’ rope solely for this purpose as I am reluctant to trust my life to an aging halyard that has been exposed to UV for years. I have a thin line permanently attached to the climbing rope and it takes very little time to tie this to the tail of the main halyard and pull it completely through to the main halyard winch. There is 20 m of free rope at the winch so that if I get stuck up the mast my wife can lower me down. This is also the quickest way down as I don’t have to climb down with the ascenders.

I formed a thin flat tail on the ends of all my halyards and climbing rope by cutting 100 mm out the central core (slide back the outer sheath) which just leaves a flat braid tail which is whipped or melted at the end.

It is then a very quick and easy job to attach a thin line to the halyard. I poke the line through near the end of the flat tail using a Swedish fid and secure it to the tail with a rolling hitch. A few turns of PVC tape gives a smooth taper.

I have used this method for 15 years and it works well. It passes very easily through the masthead sheave and down the mast.
 
The stylish way is to get the boat v heeled over and then scamper along the near-horizontal main, erk. The unstylish way is to motor somewhere and bung somebody some dosh. Why not steps?
 
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<<<< Regarding prussic knots, they are a PITA - tricky to tie neatly, difficult to move. >>>>

I've been using Prussic and P/loops since early 70's and never had a problem BUT have seen an ascender fail - chap broke his back and that persuaded me never to trust mechanical aids to climb - With regard to climbing at sea, which will ineveitably be in awkward conditions, the less equipment you need the better -

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....there's also been occasions where climbers have been found dead at the bottom of cliffs after the prussics have slipped and melted through.
 
Fair comment - it would be interesting to see some statistics - but there again stats have proved that stats prove nothing. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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haul up with one line.
to descend, hold hauling line in one hand and release the line from the jammer with the other and ease out the hauling line. To stop, just tug on the hauling line and the line will lock back into the jammer. Attach either a bosun's chair or a harness to the lower link and a main or spinnaker halyard to the top link. Safety line can be attached to the same point. I use regatta as it is nice and soft on the hands and collapses well for storage. Whole lot goes into a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.

System as used by rigger both here in Savannah and Marathon in the Keys. Need to order the correct blocks which are ratchet type from Harken.
 
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The primary climbing rope is threaded through the GriGri then up to the descender through a small crab and back down. This gives a 2:1 purchase and is much easier to climb with

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I've read and re-read this and can't picture what the route of the main climbing rope is to get the 2:1 purchase. GlennG or another can you elaborate. Where is the carabiner attached and back down to where?

Does anyone have any links to a complete method / illustrations / description. Someone mentioned a YM article - when?
Thanks
 
Thread a climbing rope, length depends on your rig height, through the mainsheet tackle, having removed it from the boom and traveller of couse, haul the block to top of mast with the main halyard and lock it off. attach the jammer and block to your sit harness - get in it and pull yourself up 4 to 1 you can nearly do it one handed, if you like security use the spinny halyard as a back up, you can stop anytime just by jammimg the rope off - I used to put the end over my shoulder to make sure it didn't jump out of jammers. coming down is dead easy just feed through the blocks. a loop below the harness is good if you need to get above the masthead, and a loop round your chest/shoulder allows you to stand in the loop and lean back releasing both hands for those fiddly jobs.
 
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I've got steps!!! Obvious innit.

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I agree, got them too. makes going up the mast so much easiers, safer and almost a pleasure.
 
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