Thistle
Well-known member
Why has no-one suggested the obvious? Get the coastguard helo to hover just above the mast and tell you how high they are flying.
How to measure mast height ?
- Thread starter dart
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Zing
Well-known member
The OP is probably dead by now. I’m surprised no one suggested this:
Make a square sheet of paper. Fold it in half, corner to corner to make a triangle. Walk away from the boat carefully, so as not to get wet until the top of the mast is in line with the hypotenuse when the triangle is held square to the ground. Measure the distance to the mast. Add on your eye height to mast base. The answer is the mast height.
Make a square sheet of paper. Fold it in half, corner to corner to make a triangle. Walk away from the boat carefully, so as not to get wet until the top of the mast is in line with the hypotenuse when the triangle is held square to the ground. Measure the distance to the mast. Add on your eye height to mast base. The answer is the mast height.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Strip the wife's lover & hoist him up the mast naked with a felt tip pen. tell him to wrap his legs around the mast & step off the lengths & mark with the felt tip as he slides down. Get the wife to check length of male member on arrival at deck level & then count number of steps down the mast.
Length of male member by steps = height of mast.
If it is rough you can put his dangly bits in the luff groove on the way up to stop him swinging away from the mast
May help to keep length of member constant if daughter lays naked on deck during proceedings & is offered as reward afterwards.
Better not to do it yourself as you may loose count of "steps" required.
Plus the chances of catching any piles on protruding pop rivets could cause a disaster
Length of male member by steps = height of mast.
If it is rough you can put his dangly bits in the luff groove on the way up to stop him swinging away from the mast
May help to keep length of member constant if daughter lays naked on deck during proceedings & is offered as reward afterwards.
Better not to do it yourself as you may loose count of "steps" required.
Plus the chances of catching any piles on protruding pop rivets could cause a disaster
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fisherman
Well-known member
Is that the old measure, rod, pole or perch?
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Yes, it is based on a sliding scale, designed around the well know factory principle of "c.ck ups and b.lls ups.
Laysula
Well-known member
Does anyone know whether the OP hit the bridge or not?
ghostlymoron
Well-known member
If the OP hasn't had his mast down and measured it with a tape measure by niw, I'll be very surprised considering he asked the question in May 2005, fourteen years ago!
Malabarista
Active member
He’s probably still trying to hit the seagull with an air rifle pellet whilst simultaneously fending off flying rocks, miscreant lovers and bits of bridge ?
lpdsn
New member
Simple really. Find the nearest tide guage. Extend it upwards by 15 or 20 metres. Tie up alongside and take a photo from some distance away using a telephoto lens. Of course you'll need to correct for height of tide.
Far simpler than machine gunning passing seagulls.
Far simpler than machine gunning passing seagulls.
John the kiwi
Active member
I have read every post on this thread and am gobsmacked that no one has mentioned the best method of all!
1 hoist a length of hose up the mast so that the open end is level with the top of the mast. (main halyard plus rolling hitch)
2 at the bottom point from which one wishes to measure, attach a tee piece to the hose such that a pressure gauge and a water supply can be attached to the hose.
3 fill hose till it overflows the open end at top of mast
4 measure pressure using gauge
5 calculate heigh from equation Height = Ro * g/pressure
Use of an electronic pressure transducer should give height +/- 1 mm easily which may just be better resolution than TOF(time of flight) of wildlife falling at terminal(both senses!) velocity.
As a bonus, fitting a sprinkler head and pumping lots of water up the mast could also cure homesickness for those sailing in warmer climes.
1 hoist a length of hose up the mast so that the open end is level with the top of the mast. (main halyard plus rolling hitch)
2 at the bottom point from which one wishes to measure, attach a tee piece to the hose such that a pressure gauge and a water supply can be attached to the hose.
3 fill hose till it overflows the open end at top of mast
4 measure pressure using gauge
5 calculate heigh from equation Height = Ro * g/pressure
Use of an electronic pressure transducer should give height +/- 1 mm easily which may just be better resolution than TOF(time of flight) of wildlife falling at terminal(both senses!) velocity.
As a bonus, fitting a sprinkler head and pumping lots of water up the mast could also cure homesickness for those sailing in warmer climes.
scottie
Well-known member
No that won’t work as the water spirals the wrong way and you would be upside down anyway
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Brilliant idea: because while you are underneath getting wet, you could put the Mustos, H Lloyds etc on & do yet another magazine article on how useless/excellent modern waterproofs are. Then get £150-- for the article,
This would go towards a little lad ( One of those that collect coconuts are recommended! loads out of work round Peckham due to Brexit uncertainty causing a shortage of coconuts) to climb up & do it properly; thus supporting the deprived section of the community .
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