The opposite of mast climbing

rwoofer

rwoofer

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Prompted by the mast climbing thread, I need to go up my mast to put on a windex. Problem is that my little 20 footer only has 300kg of internal ballast and a 30 foot mast, so if my 100kg goes up it will almost certainly topple over. As an experiment I thought maybe I could lean the boat over, so attached a halyard to the opposite side of a large pontoon and used the main winches. Expecting it to be easy I was surprised how tough it was and couldn't get the boat past 10 degrees or so. I suspect that any sideways pull on the mast sheaves is creating too much friction.

Has anyway tried similar? What did you use to pull the mast over?
 
If you really want to do it that way, how about using the main halyard to hoist a block to the masthead, with a line already threaded through it. Take one end to the pontoon and the other to your winch.

Alternatively, cleat off the bottom end of the halyard, and take the working end ashore. It's then effectively fixed at the masthead and the poor sheave lead doesn't matter - just pull down on the end. If you can't pull the boat over like that, it isn't going to fall over with you at the masthead either.

Pete
 
rb_stretch said:
Problem is that my little 20 footer only has 300kg of internal ballast and a 30 foot mast, so if my 100kg goes up it will almost certainly topple over.
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It almost certainly won't topple over with your weight, and certainly won't do so unless the boat starts rocking (passing boat's wake/starts rythmically swinging etc.). Your weight won't be trying to topple the boat while it is upright, and even when it starts to tip it has the boat's form stability trying to keep it upright as well as the weight of the ballast.

Charlie Stock used a 17 foot dinghy hull as the basis of his small cruiser. He added, IIRC, 75lbs of ballast in the bottom of the boat, then tested it by trying to pull the boat over by a line to the top of the (faily short - gaff rig) mast, and it was lifting him off the ground rather than toppling the boat.

That said, on a small boat like that it is probably safer and easier to drop the mast to fit the Windex.
 
I would drop my mast, but I broke the mast-raising kit when raising:ambivalence:

I like the idea of hoisting a free block on one halyard, will try that.
 
Try and get it near to the highest convenient point you can find and pull it over using the main halyard whilst standing on this point. The halyard needs to be at an angle of greater than 45degrees to the mast otherwise you are trying to pull the boat down into the water if necessary tie another rope to the halyard to get a longer line for leverage, make sure the boat is moored with sufficient slack on the warps to allow it all to move freely.
Should be quite easy
 
If you have adjacent pontoons just hoist a couple of lines on your main halyard and either get people to hold one each side or make them off loosely to cleats. Allow enough "rocking" room but not enough to let it get past say 15 degrees.
Whilst you weight is above the boat (even the side decks) there is no chance of you inducing a roll.
It's most unlikely it would happen at all. I've been up a 22ft mast on an 18ft boat without problems.
 
Don't use the main halyard!

The block at the top isn't designed for a sideways load. It's also possible that the mast itself isn't up to a sideways force only at the masthead if it's a spindly fractional thing which doesn't have a masthead kite. Use a kite halyard. Same goes for if you're accepting a masthead tow to get you off a mudbank.
 
No way would I go up the mast on your boat, even if she stayed upright (which she probably will) then the motion once you're up there will be like a reverse pendulum. Safest option risking neither you nor your mast is to mend the mast raising gear and lower it.
 
Not the flippant answer it might first appear, but why not invite 3 or 4 burly friends to sit in the saloon whilst you go up the mast? That would change the maths.

Alternatively why not have one of the aforementioned burly assistants hold one of your halyards on shore or another boat just to inhibit the build up of any rolling motion?
 
Is'nt the issue the angle of the dangle? So would it work if you can increase by taking the halyard a distance (idelly a mast length away ???) .
 
flaming said:
Don't use the main halyard!

The block at the top isn't designed for a sideways load.
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There will hardly be any load as you are restricting movement, not trying to induce it.

At the "about" vertical position the masthead loads would not be anything you couldn't control with a hand on the line. I have pushed a fin keel back yacht upright when one of the trailer legs collapsed. It was probably leaning at about 15 degrees and was surpisingly easy to right.

Careening a boat off a mudbank is a completely different thing and I agree you should consider the strength in the rig before trying that.

This 21ft yacht was recovered using that method. The cap shroud on the port side looks quiteslack, so you could imagine the starboard spreader pushing a kink into the mast. However on a choppy lake in a storm a boat bouncing on the rocks isn't going to survive very long anyway.

NorthStaraground09.jpg
 
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... even if pulling to horizontal is possible.. you might need to consider which part of the boat might flood first.. She could end up bows down and anchor locker / hawsepipe going partially under water before you even reach the masthead.

Perhaps also consider any batteries or other heavy items on board that might not like being turned on their side..

Not sure where you are.. In Falmouth we used to pull up behind the shops in the high street and use their fire exit steps to reach windexes..

Any bridges (e.g. Gosport) would be risky due to being blown under or into the bridge itself..

Whereabouts are you based.. It could be a quick job for a light person...
 
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My boat is 22', 7'7" beam, 950lbs ballast and 25'6" mast; no way can a normal adult get to the masthead afloat, I've tried a few times inc when I was much younger and lighter !

I did manage to get a young crew of about 9 stone to standing on the spreaders, with the boats' chainplates lashed tight to a pontoon - don't do that, it put an unfair sideload on the ' U ' bolt chainplate which snapped clean off a while later ! May well have been a crystaline fault but not worth risking.

I find even with this size boat, walls & bridges which seem high normally are actually nowhere near high enough when you need; I think the only answer is dropping the rig, at least it should be a DIY affair, even without the custom makers' kit ?

I find an ' X ' of two pine rectangular section lengths about 6' long with a bolt to make them scissor about 18" from one end to hold the mast, the other ends at the quarters of the stern, is very helpful for raising & lowering - top tip, tie the shroud & backstay bottlescrews up with shockcord / sail ties to prevent them capsizing when raising the mast.
 
If you can position the boat between 2 pontoons then run a halyard from each side of the mast to the pontoons each side that will prevent the boat toppling sideways. The halyards don't have to be right at the top of the mast. Y could even attach your 2 jib sheets to a single halyard attach the jib sheets to the 2 pontoons the tension them with the single halyard.
 
used to be a competition at the local sailing club to see how far one could get up the laser mast before the whole lot succumbed to gravity ;-)
 
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