Mast Climbing for the old

boathead said:
Hi there,

Yep, as 'srm' suggested, try Ascendeurs. I use a pair so that i can climb my mast alone, just as said I use a bosuns chair on one and foot straps on the other. They cost me £70 for the pair and after a day practicing they proved to be easy enough. They can (again as said) be awkward coming down until you remember to keep all your weight off the ascendeur you are sliding down the main halyard; put all your weight in the bosuns chair and slide ascenduer with footstaps down, don't push it down with your feet, then stand 'up' in the footstraps and slide ascenduer with bosuns chair down whist standing, then sit down, take weight off your feet and repeat.

They're great, you feel secure and can work away comfortably. I sail singlehanded and on a low, low budget, they have paid me their costs many times over.
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I use the Ascendeurs as above but on a rope hoisted to the top of the mast with a halliard, then coming down is just a case of easing the halliard and letting gravity do its thing.
 
Scotty_Twister said:
If I were to go the 'Ascendeurs' route to get me up there, what would you guys suggest as a good quality couple of masteps to be used a 'stirrups' when up the top, so I can stand up there supported by my bosuns chair?
Or would you advise against it?
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I would go to your nearest climbing shop (Tiso?) and get a pair of short stitched webbing slings which can be attached to a carribiner.
(Incidentally, many industrial harnesses now have these slings as an emergency back-up system against suspension trauma - where, after long periods in a harness, blood will 'pool' which is low in oxygen and high in waste products. When the casualty is returned to an upright or standing position, this blood then moving again and when it reaches the heart, cardiac arrest can often be he result.)
Maybe a note of caution there for those of us who spend a bit of time in harnesses up the mast.
 
tonykerry said:
Anyone got any good tips for a mast climbing device suitable for old salts with replacement hips etc? I have heard of a MastClimba device that is supposed to help but have not found any details. Any assistance will be useful. Thanks
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You heard right Tony;- nearly! It's MastaClimba and I bought one at the SBS yesterday. Normally SWMBO takes 20 minutes to get me to the top and is so exhausted I have to cook dinner. At the third attempt (consecutively!) I timed myself at 2 minutes. Completely converted! SWMBO just had to take up the slack and I even got a sherry before dinner!

Unlike the ascendeurs, it doesn't seem capable of damaging the rope either.
 
I looked at ascendeurs, but went the cheap option - good old prussic loops - one short carabinered to my harness and one long as a stirrup. Figure of eight on my spare halyard to abseil down. the whole lot cheaper than one ascendeur, and IMHO safer but then I'm a fan of old tech.

regards
chris
 
a mast climbing device suitable for old salts with replacement hips etc
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IMHO anyone , salty or otherwise, old enough to have a replacement hip or etc is too old to be climbing masts!
 
VicS said:
IMHO anyone , salty or otherwise, old enough to have a replacement hip or etc is too old to be climbing masts!
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Not true. I'd love you to have told Bader he couldn't fly a plane!

The real issue with replacement hips is not age or ability, its more that you have to keep outward rotation and splay under control.

For this reason, mast steps or bosun chair type devices would be preferable. Any form of prussic knot or ascendeur type device are far too likely to allow rotation of the joint, or splay of the legs.

I suspect most of the responders didn't read the bit about replacement hips, or didn't understand the limitations
 
Mast Climbing

Many thanks for your excellent replies, I now have a good choice of equipment to investigate based on your experience. Regards, Tony
 
Graham_Wright said:
You heard right Tony;- nearly! It's MastaClimba and I bought one at the SBS yesterday. Normally SWMBO takes 20 minutes to get me to the top and is so exhausted I have to cook dinner. At the third attempt (consecutively!) I timed myself at 2 minutes. Completely converted! SWMBO just had to take up the slack and I even got a sherry before dinner!

Unlike the ascendeurs, it doesn't seem capable of damaging the rope either.
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Could you give more information - or perhaps a web reference (google does not appear to know about it).

I too am in the market for such a device
 
Easiest method is as follows:
1) Attach Halyard to Bosuns Chair (making sure you are in it).
2) Attach other end of Halyard to something heavy .
3) On a pre-arranged signal, the helper is to launch the weight over the side.
4) To descend, helper just has to cut the halyard.

NOTE: Make sure that depth of water AT LEAST equals height of mast.

There may be other, more controlled ways to do this. It is probably best to leave any jobs that need done up the mast until you also need a new halyard.
 
Hmmm . . . depends a bit on the boat - how high the stick is, do you have a partner/crew and do you have a windless or any big winches?

Normally I sit in a bosun's chair hooked to the try sail halyard (specifically extra long to reach to the windless or primary winch) and my wife just steps on the windless switch and up I go. Sometimes she wants a little exercise and takes the try sail halyard tail back to a primary winch (turned at the mast base with a snatch block) and cranks me up.

When I am alone I go the rock climbing route. I wrote an article on this at: http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/MastClimbing.pdf. The only major comment/change I would make vs what's suggested above is you want a grigri plus and ascender rather than two ascenders. The grigri makes coming down much easier. This kit bought at a climbing store will usually be about half the price of the marine 'mast climbing gear'.

If you have a shorter mast the 4:1 or 5:1 tackles are less work and better for your hips, but on a taller mast its just too much line to deal with.
 
the good quality 'step' I used was a plank of wood!!

My setup is a pair of climbers assenders - one attached to a harness (trapeze, but bosuns chair is just as good) - the other attached to a plank of wood with a hole in the middle.

I haul a line to the masthead on the main halyard and thread the other end through the step before making off at the bottom of the shroud (the be retensioned when I put my weight on the line)

Then attach the assenders to the line and use the topping lift as a safety line.

The reason I use a seperate line to the halyard is the assenders have sharp teeth (nothing like a normal cleat or clutch) and will damage the line with time.... I'd rather do that to a sacrificial line!
 
MastaClimba

There seems to be a video on Youtube of the MastaClimba device. Just go on youtube.co.uk and search for MastaClimba and there is a video of the device in use although with not a lot of detail of the components that it uses - at least it seems to work without any problems. Regards, Tony
 
We use a foot bar, piece of wood say 2x1 in section, 350mm long, harken cam cleat in the middle with fairleads. Loops so you can lift it with both feet and stand on it with both feet.
Padded so as not to scratch mast etc.
Fairleads make the halyard always cleat in the harken.
Then a harness or bosun's chair to ascender or another halyard.
Using both legs to ascend is really efficient. balanced/symetrical.
You can stand on the bar and work on masthead lights etc
You get lowered down on halyard.
So you must trust this and/or use two!!!
On mine you have to undo a fairlead to get the footbar off the halyard, couple of wingnuts.
Someone will normally help for a beer.
Good to have a pair of hands in the cockpit.
Test everything 1ft off the deck!!

Take your time, take care and it's easy if you do it right.
 
fireball said:
The reason I use a seperate line to the halyard is the assenders have sharp teeth (nothing like a normal cleat or clutch) and will damage the line with time.... I'd rather do that to a sacrificial line!
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Under the frequency of use that your average yottie will give to such a set-up, there is little chance of damage to the rope occurring. On the contrary, several years ago when an operation I was involved in required that 200m of rope be hauled using 4 Petzl ascenders (as opposed to assender) 4 times daily for 3 months, whilst the rope required change out once (because of oil contamination), we had to condemn 12 ascenders with worn out teeth.
Where damage might occur is where there is shock loading imposed, but ascenders should never be exposed to this.
 
I have noticed a few references to the MastaClimba so I googled and found the youtube video. I watched the video and it looks a very easy method of mast climbing especially as the winch operator just seems to be tailing and not winching. Is it as good as
it appears anybody?
 
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