When things go wrong ... mast problems ....

[Refueler]

Today - I decide to re-run all running rigging after its had its winter wash and spruce ... I have trace lines for running them back in ...

Halyards are internal jobs with sheeves top and bottom.

Genny halyard goes through fine ...

Main halyard goes up then stops ... so I try to get it back down to see if the 'joint' trace line to main is bunched .... but nothing budges can't bring it down ... can't get it to go through ...

Looks like trace line has jumped the sheeve and is now jammed. I can't do anything from the deck ...

I only have the one halyard rigged and there's no other that I would trust to be the second safety line for a haul up the mast .... because the only other internal halyard - Spinnaker - came down after breaking its trace line last year ... as a very rare spinny user - never bothered to rerun it.

So it looks like a drop the mast job ... BUT with CV 19 - I cannot have the number of guys for safely doing the job ... have to now sort out my A frame ...

I have two long steel poles from the basketball hall .... but boy are they heavy and would need cutting etc. to suit. I tried before asking company who has scaffold gear if I could buy a couple of poles - even if bent / dented ... but no.
I could buy two heavy duty metal fence poles .... cut bottom to fit the baby stay fittings on deck ... tops together with through bolt with block. I have the windlass etc.

Really annoyed !!

Oh - I forgot to mention my glasses fell in - lucky on top of a load of reeds floating .. so reaching to get them - slid into water over my knees - luckily just missing dunking bot mobile phones !! But I got my glasses.

 

[Rappey]

How tall is the mast and how long a ladder can you get hold of ?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Can you get alonside a wall and access the top of the mast at low water?

 

[rogerthebodger]

With a relative small boat could you take the halyard you have at the top of the last and attach it to the base of a tree and which the boat over to get the top closer to the ground so you can get to the top of the mast from ground level.

 

[LadyInBed]

Can you get alonside a wall and access the top of the mast at low water?

Or a bridge

 

[Refueler]

Can you get alongside a wall and access the top of the mast at low water?

We don't have tides here ... top of mast is 8m from deck.

I certainly don't fancy trying to use a ladder !! I actually have a 3 phase ladder - that might reach .. BUT how to stop it turning against a round face mast ! If I was to do anything while mast stepped - then a 'Cherry Picker' is better.

I'm considering getting my pal who has a truck with Hiab ... maybe to get him to lift the mast of for me. If I'm going to do anything at the top - I can think of a few jobs :

Fix my stupid wind indicator on the VHF antenna
Clean and lub the halyard sheeves
Re-Run that spinny halyard
Clean up the stays from the green gunge that's accumulated during winter ...

Still going to form that A frame though ...

 

[Refueler]

With a relative small boat could you take the halyard you have at the top of the last and attach it to the base of a tree and which the boat over to get the top closer to the ground so you can get to the top of the mast from ground level.

Tried this before but boat is 4ton ... with most low down ....

My channel is not deep enough for this - bilge keel hits bottom. With fin or long keel - maybe.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

We don't have tides here ... top of mast is 8m from deck.

I certainly don't fancy trying to use a ladder !! I actually have a 3 phase ladder - that might reach .. BUT how to stop it turning against a round face mast ! If I was to do anything while mast stepped - then a 'Cherry Picker' is better.

I'm considering getting my pal who has a truck with Hiab ... maybe to get him to lift the mast of for me. If I'm going to do anything at the top - I can think of a few jobs :

Fix my stupid wind indicator on the VHF antenna
Clean and lub the halyard sheeves
Re-Run that spinny halyard
Clean up the stays from the green gunge that's accumulated during winter ...

Still going to form that A frame though ...

Sorry - to my shame I didn't notice who'd posted!

 

[Refueler]

Sorry - to my shame I didn't notice who'd posted!

No worries ...

Lack of tide is a great boon for cruising ... but there are odd disadvantages !!

 

[Kinsale373]

Do you have a topping at the end of the boom still on? The shieve is normally the standard sise for the boom so you should able to run up a thicker line on this, say 12 mm for climbing. Are you whipping in strong twine loops to tie the Lines and Halyards so that you can safely give a good pull and work the lines a bit if they are sticky?

Kinsale 373

 

[Refueler]

Do you have a topping at the end of the boom still on? The shieve is normally the standard sise for the boom so you should able to run up a thicker line on this, say 12 mm for climbing. Are you whipping in strong twine loops to tie the Lines and Halyards so that you can safely give a good pull and work the lines a bit if they are sticky?

Kinsale 373

My Topping lift is the older common type where the sheeve is a pulley on outside of mast .... not internal as halyards. I would not want to put my 110kg's on that !!



I'm close to getting a 'Cherry Picker' or HIAB truck in and lift the mast of in one go ... while putting together an A frame system for later.
The 'lift' would make life easier as the boat is afloat and not so easy to get mast on / off to shore.
It also will allow me to fix several issues I have at masthead

The halyards all have twine loops for attaching reeving lines .... except for that Spinnaker line for some strange reason ...

The main halyard is stuck because reeving / trace line has jumped sheeve and jammed ...

While that photo is shown ... the anchor light up there had a mishap one year ... it was an old design with glass and bronze cage ..... the glass got broken ...
No-way I could ever find a replacement glass for it .... sat looking at it drinking a coke ..... then it dawned on me .... the plastic coke bottle was exact same size !! So its had a cut down coke bottle 'glass' for over 10years now and no problem at all !!

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

How about?

Piece of stiff wire, 3 to 4mm steel. Bit like this.

Attach a downhaul/retrieval line to the topping lift, then whip the wire to the tlift. Keeping the main halyard taut for now, haul the contraption up until the ring is jammed twixt halyard and sheave box. Loosen the halyard and pull the tlift up a bit more and jiggle/twist to lift the halyard or messenger back onto the sheave. Patience, good glasses or binos are the key.

 

[fredrussell]

If you have a three section ladder I’d go with that. Line from each top corner of ladder led forward to bows and then winched in tight will stop it rotating on mast. Same thing with bottom corners of ladder but with extra lines made fast in various directions to keep it where you want it. I’ve done it this way. Was no trouble.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Our local hire company lists a towable cherry picker (Nifty 120) which we have hired for various uses including access to top of mast and re-lining our chimney.
Check to see if any of your local ire companies offer something similar.

additional info' ..if you go on to the Aberaeron Yacht Club website and look in the photo's section there is a shot of me working on the top of my mast from the cherry picker.

 

[Refueler]

We have hire company here with Cherry Picker ... problem is the distance from land to mast ... I cannot put boat alongside as not enough water. Only bows to ... so there's at least a 5 - 6m gap to bridge.

"anoccasionalyachtsman" ... appreciate post ... checking it out.

"fredrussell" ..... checking ... but I have seen someone years ago have terrible accident with a ladder and to be honest - even going up 2 sections is enough for me on dry land !! But lets see.

Viestur was checking his MoBo and we discussed what to do ....

Because boat hasn't been out of water for many years ... I'm think better to get HIAB to lift mast of vertically and put ashore. I can then clean up .. service ... do all necessary.
Later actually lift whole boat out easier as mast is not there ... underneath is likely worlds eco disaster !! and good to check her out anyway ..

I can do all the work while CV 19 lockdown prevents any cruising ... I have the other boats for river use.

Still all in discussion / decision stage !!

 

[Refueler]

OK .... cv19 is causing tightening of limits here and fines of up to 2000 euros are set for not obeying the rules ....

I have two stainless poles of 6m each (they are from Town Basketball Hall .... the bottom hem of the court dividing curtain has them in to weigh it down ... pal of mine had job to replace them ..... gave me the old).

I had to cut about 30cm on one end as it was damaged ... so cut one pole into two equal 2.8m lengths.



So will drill through near tops and put stud bar through with nuts to create the V .....
Question is the feet to avoid damage to deck. I was thinking to get wood blocks with brackets so poles can rotate ... but not so sure about screws etc.
Wife suggested I take one of the old tyres I have for my RC Car track markers and cut 'boots' for the poles .... not a bad idea in fact.

I have two double blocks .. all I need now is sufficient rope of about 8mm to reeve in the blocks .... assuming a triangle of 3m x 3m x 3m .... with two double blocks .... that's 5x 3m = 15m rope + extra.

 

[Refueler]

I'm hoping that the two poles can be laid on deck (separated of course) so I carry them on boat for use when called on.

I am thinking that the two double blocks I have ... may be too large as they are for 10 - 12mm rope ... so maybe once I actually get some use of the A frame - I can then think about smaller blocks for 6 - 8mm rope. I might even be able to to reduce to one single + 1 double .....

We have a week of crap weather now - so plenty time to think and read suggestions if anyone wants to post here ?

 

[black mercury]

Used to help a man with his A frames. His were two wooden poles that had a thick leather strap connecting them at the top. At the bottom they fitted onto the forward lower shroud plates with bolts where the lower bottlescrew pins would go. After removing the four lower stays you attached the poles with the bolts, positioned the top of the poles couple of feet from the base of the forestay (leather helped stop the forestay from slipping). He had a trailer winch that slotted into bow roller with a line to extend the forestay. Attached this to bottom of forestay, disconnected forestay and got someone to push mast backwards to start it off, slowly lowering mast with winch. Worked a treat.

 

[rogerthebodger]

My Mast is a lot bigger than yours 15 meters above deck.

I made a "hinge " that clamped to the mast and bolted to the deck fittings where the mast location foot bolts.

I then used a hinged A frame like yours hinged on the chain plates in line with the mast. I then lowered the mast using a block an tackle and sheet winch to over the mast.

If you leave the side rigging in place it will guide he mast until the mast is 45 degrees above deck the the A frame will control sideways movement.

 

[Refueler]

Used to help a man with his A frames. His were two wooden poles that had a thick leather strap connecting them at the top. At the bottom they fitted onto the forward lower shroud plates with bolts where the lower bottlescrew pins would go. After removing the four lower stays you attached the poles with the bolts, positioned the top of the poles couple of feet from the base of the forestay (leather helped stop the forestay from slipping). He had a trailer winch that slotted into bow roller with a line to extend the forestay. Attached this to bottom of forestay, disconnected forestay and got someone to push mast backwards to start it off, slowly lowering mast with winch. Worked a treat.

I know of the bolt through shroudplates .... but on thinking to do similar I realised that I was atdisadvantage.

My stays are fixed to U fittings into toerail ... so if I was do same ... I would have the A frame poles / bolts pressing onto the GRP toe-rails ... sorry I don't have better photo - but maybe this gives idea ... (look carefully at stays to deck fastening)