Stepping your mast.

[Quandary]

I was down helping at the crane yesterday and we put three masts up, all were complete including windex at the back and wind transducer at the front. In every case at some point in the manouvreing, the suspension rope was leaning on the projecting wind transducer arm, but all went up without visible damage. For years it had been my habit to put the mast up naked and when it is properly secured, to get my wife to wind me up in a bosuns chair to screw on the delicate stuff plus non essential clutter like flag halyards and lazy jack drops which tend to get in the way when stepping. However I have just acquired a new knee and with it has come about a stone of extra weight, the mast is keel stepped about 16m. high and if I go up on the main halyard this time I will be almost a dead weight for my wife who is now the only surviving crew that I trust to let me back down again. I will have only my hands to help her take the weight as I climb. So the question is - what are the chances of avoiding damage if I put these bits on before the lift.
The local boatyard crane is a commercial operation/semi self help, this is reflected in the hire charge and a transducer would not be worth an insurance claim, so I am interested to establish if the risk is sufficiently small to ignore but concerned that if there is even slight damage it means a trip up there anyway.
Interesting to consider that the elevation is equivalent to about 6 storeys, it does not feel like it when you are up there, I feel more queasy cleaning our gutters.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I have a single spreader, deck step mast, about 50' long, with antenna bracket on port side, windex and anemometer sticking out the front. the antenna stays on as does burgee lines, but the marina places the windex on after the mast is stepped. They are hoisted up by the crane, perhaps you could get hoisted up by the crane.

 

[prv]

This year is the first time we've had a mast that we couldn't raise on our own, so relied on a marina crane. No damage as such, but they managed to ding the windex tacking arms so they're sticking out to one side. At some point I need to get up there and put them straight.

Pete

 

[yoda]

If you were down my way I would do it for a couple of pints - maybe somebody in your neck of the woods fancies a free drink or two?

Yoda

 

[alahol2]

At our club we have a derrick crane mounted on a dolphin. The peak of the derrick never gets as high as the masthead, it is inside the fore triangle when the mast is lifted. I don't know if a marina yard would be prepared or able to do that?