SimbaDog
Well-Known Member
I can't understand why nobody has posted the obvious simple answer? Send someone else up the mast, when the boat falls over you will have easy access to the top! :encouragement:
The opposite of mast climbing
- Thread starter rwoofer
- Start date
jimi
Well-Known Member
or let the boat sink in 18 foot of water? Then attend to the mast top from the dinghy?
Biggles Wader
Well-Known Member
Or get a smaller mast,and a taller owner.
seumask
Well-Known Member
RB
IMHO you can get the Sun 2000 mast down (and up) under Man power alone. Ive done it with two reasonably fit men several times as long as the pin at the bottom is not broken, its not a massively heavy mast, and you'll find two of you can manage it walking slowly backwards after releasing the forestay, three's even easier. Trick is to be as far towards the stern as you can at any time.
Alternativly create your own A frame out of 2 10 ft lengths of 2"*2" timber which I used many times on the bigger Hunter Delta Mast and tie to the nearest stantion base forward of the mast. A frame close to horizontal at the start with Jib Halyard fixed to it and use the main sheet system to lower it away. Guide it down with either the main halyard or a person being carefull on the cabin top, ( ie no person under the mast)
Seumask
IMHO you can get the Sun 2000 mast down (and up) under Man power alone. Ive done it with two reasonably fit men several times as long as the pin at the bottom is not broken, its not a massively heavy mast, and you'll find two of you can manage it walking slowly backwards after releasing the forestay, three's even easier. Trick is to be as far towards the stern as you can at any time.
Alternativly create your own A frame out of 2 10 ft lengths of 2"*2" timber which I used many times on the bigger Hunter Delta Mast and tie to the nearest stantion base forward of the mast. A frame close to horizontal at the start with Jib Halyard fixed to it and use the main sheet system to lower it away. Guide it down with either the main halyard or a person being carefull on the cabin top, ( ie no person under the mast)
Seumask
rwoofer
Well-Known Member
rwoofer
Well-Known Member
Someone has offered...I could do the mainsail walk to the top of the mast ala Alex Thomson, plug the windex in and then walk back to the boat. Very civilised. Not sure how I would get them back up/down again....if you know what i mean.
On the 5.7m (19') dayboats (750kg displacement), we use for sail training, we occasionally have to retrieve jib or mainsail halyards which have been let fly free and have worked their way to the masthead.To do this on a mooring we first take a line from the stern to another moored boat, then tie the jib halyard to the stern of a 15hp motorboat and throttle up, pulling the boat over on her beam ends whereupon another motorboat or tender can go alongside the masthead and do the necessary. Simples!
ripvan1
Well-Known Member
Great minds think alike :encouragement:
onesea
Well-Known Member
My thought was mast climder or mast ladder type system that way as you go up you can always decide shes too tender and come back down....
William_H
Well-Known Member
The boast might not necessarily actually topple over but any rocking with you up the mast will make a wonderful pendulum and scare the heck out you.
As said it is best to lower the mast especially if you can do it near a tall wharf or jetty at low tide such that the mast lowered into a tall crutch support at the transom, so that with the boat twisted around slightly so mast top is over the wharf . take a step ladder in case it is still too high.
However here is a photo of my 21fter doing stability tests.
DSC_1897.jpg (96.1 KB)
The bow and stern were tethered to boats on either side in the marina. The main halyard was pulled down by 3 guys. After about 45 degrees the pressure to hold it down ecomes a lot less such that 30kg measured at the hounds would hold it down horizontal. As you cna see with no one aboard no problems with water getting in the cockpit or boat. It is a lot different with 4 heavy crew. Anyway no concerns about rig strength. If it fails you are better off finding the problem.
So this is one way you could work on the mast head but I prefer to drop the mast into a crutch. good luck olewill
As said it is best to lower the mast especially if you can do it near a tall wharf or jetty at low tide such that the mast lowered into a tall crutch support at the transom, so that with the boat twisted around slightly so mast top is over the wharf . take a step ladder in case it is still too high.
However here is a photo of my 21fter doing stability tests.
DSC_1897.jpg (96.1 KB)
The bow and stern were tethered to boats on either side in the marina. The main halyard was pulled down by 3 guys. After about 45 degrees the pressure to hold it down ecomes a lot less such that 30kg measured at the hounds would hold it down horizontal. As you cna see with no one aboard no problems with water getting in the cockpit or boat. It is a lot different with 4 heavy crew. Anyway no concerns about rig strength. If it fails you are better off finding the problem.
So this is one way you could work on the mast head but I prefer to drop the mast into a crutch. good luck olewill
savageseadog
Well-Known Member
Bringing the physics into it. The reason it's harder than you "calculated" is the form stability of the boat, ie buoyancy.
More helpfully, ask the owner of a larger boat if you can go part way up his rig and carreen yours over to it.
Seajet
...
The problem with that is it's asking for clashing rigs and quite possibly damage to anything on the smaller boats' masthead, at least.
The snag with this size boat - inc my 22 - is that they don't like the weight of a person up the mast - and one can prove this just by climbing towards the spreaders on a loop of line or nowadays harness type chair - but are too stable to pull over very far at all, even with the keel up.
In 36 years of owning my boat I've had my share of genuine problems - Cormorant damage to windex etc - or cock-ups like halliards left at the masthead when raising !
I've tried all these dodges like looking for high walls, but they don't usually happen unless one is very lucky, and one can get tempted into silly situations by bridges where significant damage to mast and / or boat is invited.
Take it from me, the answer is to lower the mast for a little while, it's easy with this size boat as long as the step is pivoted, which I believe the OP's is.
The snag with this size boat - inc my 22 - is that they don't like the weight of a person up the mast - and one can prove this just by climbing towards the spreaders on a loop of line or nowadays harness type chair - but are too stable to pull over very far at all, even with the keel up.
In 36 years of owning my boat I've had my share of genuine problems - Cormorant damage to windex etc - or cock-ups like halliards left at the masthead when raising !
I've tried all these dodges like looking for high walls, but they don't usually happen unless one is very lucky, and one can get tempted into silly situations by bridges where significant damage to mast and / or boat is invited.
Take it from me, the answer is to lower the mast for a little while, it's easy with this size boat as long as the step is pivoted, which I believe the OP's is.
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
See post #7
Exactly what I did. 18 foot boat mast head rig, went up to sort out a jamming furler top bobbin.
Too many wimps involved in yachting. Too much flawed theory.
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rogerthebodger
Well-Known Member
Is that something to do with being Lakesailered ?
How does the saying do " great minds think alike and fools never differ"
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Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Read and digest. http://www.lakelandimages.co.uk/Forum pics/LakesailorRules.htm
savageseadog
Well-Known Member
I think this is a reply to my suggestion of using a larger boat's rig for access. There's no reason why the rigs would clash, you wouldn't have the boats next to each other, you would have 3-5m between boats depending on the exact configuration. Should work OK.
Seajet
...
savageseadog,
so where would the person hanging on the larger boats' rig be then ? the smaller masthead is bound to be perilously close to the larger rigging.
I understand it's fun to hypothesize, but having been in this situation a fair few times over the last 36 years with a boat of this size, there's no point messing about, just lower the rig, sort the snag & raise...
so where would the person hanging on the larger boats' rig be then ? the smaller masthead is bound to be perilously close to the larger rigging.
I understand it's fun to hypothesize, but having been in this situation a fair few times over the last 36 years with a boat of this size, there's no point messing about, just lower the rig, sort the snag & raise...
rwoofer
Well-Known Member
Decision made, I need to get my mast lowering kit fixed by a rigger and then I'll lower the mast. Just have to sail for a few weeks with no wind indicators. Thanks for all the input. I'm always open to trying something new, but it sounds like the safest option is also the best.
Seajet
...
There's always wool on the shrouds; is the mast lowering kit that good / essential ?
rwoofer
Well-Known Member
Yes, although the boat is only 20 foot long, the mast is 30 feet. Along with a heavy furling forestay, it does need bracing from the sides as you hoist. No doubt 3 or 4 blokes can do it, but finding the time to assemble friends (all with families) and getting them to the boat in the middle of summer is too big an ask.