How to measure mast height ?

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Re: You\'ve been Had

Maybe he's mistaken a whip antenna for a very thin mast?

Dart... does your mast bend easily by hand?

 

[Lakesailor]

Re: You\'ve been Had

[ QUOTE ]

How do you figure that out??

[/ QUOTE ]
Ok, he may have a mast, but according to his profile he doesn't have anywhere to step it. Or he's keeping it a secret.

 

[phanakapan]

Re: You\'ve been Had

It's easy. Get a helium filled balloon.-
No, put that string away.
Breathe in the helium then phone up the boat yard and in your best little woman voice ask pwetty pwetty pwease can a nice rigger come and measure your mast 'cos your'e only a girl and don't know how to do it.

 

[jimi]

better not ..

spoonerise that!

 

[dart]

WOW, thanks for all the ideas. This is the one I used. Incidentally I am in NW Sweden where there are a few tricky bridges which is why I needed to know.

Cheers Chris.

 

[fireball]

Chris,
I am so dissapointed that you deemed it nessersary to follow this inaccurate and un-reliable method - did you not think about the stretch in the tape measure or line ?

 

[dart]

Re: Ingrate

Since I posted I have been sailing up the NW coast of Sweden, able to receive replies but not able to post. Perhaps you could be a bit more patient with us non armchair sailors!

 

[Lakesailor]

Oh well, that's fine then go with the first post. We've worked really hard to give 5 pages of usefull tips here and he goes with the 1st one.
It might even work, but it's not so much fun /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[davebray]

Re: Starling shites yer answer, innit.....

As a first time contributor may I humbly suggest using my personal unit of measure - a 440 ml guiness can which for people who I won't associate with (non-drinkers) is 6.25". Drink as many Guinii (a collection of guiness) as required to stack up to reach the mast top. If they fall over do not reuse as they may be damaged, always use new.

 

[Lakesailor]

Re: Starling shites yer answer, innit.....

You're wasting your time mate. He's going to use a tape measure. Ha!

 

[dart]

OK, this is probably the best tip. I tried this and got 16.5 m. Passed under a 18m bridge with at least a meter to spare.

Cheers Chris.

 

[michael_99]

How did you measure the 1 mtr to spare. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Re: Ingrate

[ QUOTE ]
Since I posted I have been sailing up the NW coast of Sweden, able to receive replies but not able to post. Perhaps you could be a bit more patient with us non armchair sailors!

[/ QUOTE ]

Why didn't anyone pick up on this obvious and oh so simple method before. Obviously Dart only posted to test us or in fact to feel smug as he knew the simplest and most accurate method all the time.

Take you favourite armchair down to the boat. Sit it 32.5ft from the bow, you may have to use the dinghy for this if on a deep water mooring. Sit back in the chair and look dead ahead, do not allow your eyes to wander up or down.

Now start raising your head until the masthead is in your centre of vision. Measure the angle of you chin to third rib and compare this with your initial reading.

Grab the A level maths student if he is not in casualty nursing broken ankles after being dropped from masthead and get him to work out the exact height. You may need to give him the time and exact height of tide if you were not using the dinghy method.

Why has it taken so long for the armchair sailor method to come to the fora, do none of you guys have any common sense or something? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Lakesailor]

Subtract the height of the mast from the bridge airdraught. Simple.

 

[fireball]

but how do you get the measurement on how drafty it is on the bridge? Is that actual wind speed or apparent?

 

[Lakesailor]

If you stand on the bridge and it's apparently windy, then it's apparent. The speed doesn't matter. It's the sea state below the bridge that matters as that could make the mast height vary "its 10 metres, no 12 metres, no 9 metres"
You see it's not so easy is it. If you were on the bridge and the fish is still on the top of the mast you could get that back as well.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
If you stand on the bridge and it's apparently windy, then it's apparent.

[/ QUOTE ]

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Brilliant, I have been wondering what the terminology that is banded around the forums meant. Thank you for your easy to understand explanation.

 

[Vara]

It's not as simple as that,if we were standing under the bridge with our arm chair assorted mammals,birds,sea life,watches and bits of string and I said "it's windy"and you replied "thats true" we'd be in a right state!

 

[Lakesailor]

Apparently that would be true.
There again if you were sat in the chair, motionless (chair, not you) would true be apparent, and vica versa.

 

[l'escargot]

The measuring bit is a red herring, it turns out that he doesn't need to know the height at all - just whether the boat will fit under the bridge. So the easy way is just send someone ahead to stand on the bridge and shout stop if it looks like the mast isn't going to fit - it will also save having to measure the height of the bridge as well. Why does everyone have to get all technical?