Throwing a line up the mast

[nigelmercier]

I recently needed to throw a line over my bottom spreaders, it proved impossible. I have since invested in a cheap slingshot (sometimes wrongly called a catapult) and a number of small rubber balls:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390615552762

I drilled a 3mm hole in one of the balls, and hollowed out an 8mm diameter cavity with a Dremel. I got a short length of 3mm cord and knotted a loop 25mm from the end, then cut it off close to the knot. I covered the knot in epoxy glue and partly filled the hole in the ball, then pushed the knot into the hole. When it cured, I had a small loop firmly fixed into a rubber ball. Attached to a length of thin twine, this has been surprisingly accurate when fired with the slingshot.

 

[lw395]

I once used an old tennis ball I'd fished out the harbour for no great reason.
I just taped a length of whipping twine to it.
I've seen people try to use fishing rods to cast through the right bit of rigging when something is the wrong side of a spreader.
A rubber ball instead of a lead weight would be good!

 

[rob2]

Been, there, done that... We used a heaving line with a monkey's fist - me a traditionalist?!

Rob.

 

[ffiill]

Small adjustable spanner!
BUT how to do the following-at the top of my missen mast to take the ensign I have an aluminium pole which is cranked out at right angle so the ensign can fly forwards.The line has broken and I need to rethread the pulley on the cranked out end
I can climb the mast no problem but I will have to thread the pulley which is more than arms length from the mast?

 

[Vara]

Similar tools used for cats in garden, but no string, will add that to save traipsing up and down.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I use a extended aluminium pole (bought two from B&Q a few years ago £10 each). Extends from ~ 1.5 m to ~6m which is long enough to reach the spreaders. Very useful tool.

 

[laika]

I have since invested in a cheap slingshot (sometimes wrongly called a catapult)

Very good. Now ditch the VHF in favour of firing messages in film canisters onto the decks of passing ships

 

[ffiill]

I use a extended aluminium pole (bought two from B&Q a few years ago £10 each). Extends from ~ 1.5 m to ~6m which is long enough to reach the spreaders. Very useful tool.

Good idea

 

[cryan]

I have on occasion had to put a line over an arm on a mast usually to haul up a bucket with spare lamps etc. I always used a light heaving line but I found that standing with your back to the mast and heaving the line over your shoulder produced a more accurate throw? Kind of swing the monkey fist from between your legs and up over the shoulder. I have no idea why its easier but a Filipino Bosun suggested it when he found me on the monkey island of one ship holding one end of a heaving line with the other end wrapped around every aerial and nav light aloft with no way of getting it back without a climb.

 

[Petronella]

Small adjustable spanner!
BUT how to do the following-at the top of my missen mast to take the ensign I have an aluminium pole which is cranked out at right angle so the ensign can fly forwards.The line has broken and I need to rethread the pulley on the cranked out end
I can climb the mast no problem but I will have to thread the pulley which is more than arms length from the mast?

How about attaching some thin line to the end of your new line. Make a loop in the other end of the thin line. Unbend that most useful of tools a wire coat hanger maybe with a little hook on the end and use it to push the loop over the pulley. Take another bent coat hanger, grab the loop with it and pull the loop back towards you. Now pull the whole of the thin line through followed by your new line.

 

[PabloPicasso]

Small adjustable spanner!
BUT how to do the following-at the top of my missen mast to take the ensign I have an aluminium pole which is cranked out at right angle so the ensign can fly forwards.The line has broken and I need to rethread the pulley on the cranked out end
I can climb the mast no problem but I will have to thread the pulley which is more than arms length from the mast?

Sit in a bosons chair at mast head. A pair of footstrops will allow you to stand up. Al la mastclimber.

 

[Greenheart]

I didn't fancy rolling the dinghy over to reach the spreaders, back on a freezing day in March...I can't even recall why I needed to...but I got SWMBO to hold one end of the rope while I tossed the rest up over the spreaders. Predictably, SWMBO gave a surprised squawk and just let go of her end. I spent 90 minutes groping around with the spinnaker pole, trying to get the line down from the branches of the trees overhead...

 

[Burnham Bob]

in reply to the original post, when i needed to get the spinnaker halyard over the spreaders to act as a safety line when i went up the mast with a TopClimber, i tied a tennis ball in an old sock and used a light line. standing with your back to the spreaders as noted earlier makes for an easier throw