Would you go up the mast when on the hard?

[Guest]

My boat's just been hauled for a month, but I have to climb the mast to measure the height to which the main lifts. If I don't do this I can't get my IRC rating, if I can't get the IRC rating I can't enter the race I want to try this year ... and the deadline for race entry is May 1st ( and it takes about 3-4 weeks to get the IRC number).

Would you climb a mast if the boat is in a boatyard cradle?

 

[BrianJ]

How happy are you with the rigging and the cradle... how high is the mast ?
Can you get some one else to do it (crew/ bar fly )
If not , then provided all was secure my answer is YES.
BrianJ

 

[rogerroger]

no

Not sure if I can give you a good reason, but I certainly wouldn't.

Surely when you're aloft the additional weight at height would mean that the slightest movement will mean the boat will want to roll one way or the other. Obviously this is OK in the water unless it's a very small boat an you're 25 stones?

Surely on the hard this could topple the boat over ?

Perhaps not, I stand to be corrected but I wouldn't risk it on mine.

good luck

Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[Miker]

Re: no - I wouldn\'t either

I have to change my VHF aerial and cable and I can't talk my crew into going up until we are back in the water. He, too, is worried about the ability of the wooden chocs to support any rocking motion. Probably it is just subjective: it looks much higher out of the water.

 

[EdEssery]

In the yard where my boat is there are signs up with the yard rules in a couple of places, two of them are:
No climbing of masts on boats which are out of the water.
No starting of engines on boats which are out of the water.

If you want to know the rise of the main halliard attach the end of a metal measuring tape to it and pull the halliard until you can see with binoculars that it is fully up and then measure off at the gooseneck. You can then pull the halliard back down with the tape.

I used to race Flying Fifteens where the rake of the mast and rig tension is critical to performance. We used to put the jib up and then tension the halliard whilst measuring the rig tension on a stay. We then haulled a measuring tape up the mast on the main halliard and measured the distance to the centre of the top of the transom and adjusted it with the mast ram. You can stir up a hornets nest of discussion amongst Fifteen sailors by asking whether the rake should be 24'9" or 24'10.5" - Don't believe me? See http://flying15.org/gbr/tuning.htm

It's the only other place I know where 1.5" can cause so much discussion!!

So in answer to the original question - No I wouldn't climb the mast ashore - it's dangerous and unneccessary.

Ed

 

[Twister_Ken]

No need

Either measure the mast as Ed suggests, or measure the luff of your main.

 

[ChrisJ]

Re: Don\'t do it

The yard boys refused to go up my mast to fix things while it was on the shore - and thats on a wide, solid, Westerley Konsort sitting on bilge keels.

 

[romany123]

Hump
Have you checked with your insurance company.......
Dave

Dave

 

[bedouin]

In fact I would have no problem going up the mast with the boat on the hard - provided there wasn't much wind. Assuming that the mast is nearly vertical it would have much less effect on the balance than standing on the rail.

However as others have said there are better ways of doing this. The simplest is probably the metal tape on the halyard - otherwise you can measure the main (not strictly accurate I think). Note that you are going to have to measure the main anyway for the 1/2 and 3/4 height widths.

Also - although the entries have to be in by 1st May, you don't need to have the IRC rating until 14th June.

 

[Mirelle]

Absolutely NOT

Very dangerous indeed. And unnecessary. Much safer and easier to hire the yard crane to lower the mast, measure it on trestles on the ground, check the rigging whilst you are at it, and then re- erect it.

 

[rogerroger]

no starting engines?

so how would they expect you to warm the oil to remove it for winterisation for example?



Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[steve_cronin]

Re: no starting engines?

You don't REMOVE the oil, you CHANGE the oil (& filter).

Best to do it in the water just before she is lifted. The few minutes of running won't contaminate the oil but a gnatscock's worth. When she is on the hard drain all the seawater from the heat exchanger, remove the flexible pipe between it and the exhaust system and stuff oily rags into both exposed ends as well as the air intake after removing the filter.

Steve CRonin

 

[steve_cronin]

Surely a builder\'s tape measure...

.. fixed to the main halyard by tape and hauled up (with a downhaul) will give just as accurate a reading at the gooseneck or wherever? As others have said, the intermediates can bet gotten by measuring the main?

Steve CRonin

 

[bedouin]

Re: Absolutely NOT

Why do you say it is so dangerous? In terms of turning force it is safer than standing on the side deck

 

[romany123]

Re: no starting engines?

use a fan heater....
Dave

Dave

 

[rogerroger]

Re: no starting engines?

didn't want a long post! yes I know CHANGE the oil, but oil has to be removed in order to change it...

I couldn't do it with the boat in the water as had to deliver boat to yard and leave straight away.

I started the engine on the hard to warm the oil and expel water from the exhaust with no problems...

Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[Mirelle]

Re: Absolutely NOT

Only if the weight is plumb over the centreline. If it is not, we soon get a very different sort of picture, because the lever arm is so much longer, to which add windage, the very different places on the boat herself where the load is being taken, and the possibility that the cradle may be standing, not on strong, level concrete, but on a surface which might "give".

The windage issue is not negligible; many yards have restrictions on their insurance cover in this respect.

 

[bedouin]

Re: Absolutely NOT

I agree about the windage issue. But, not for the leverage.

Since gravity acts vertically the turning moment is the product of the mass of the object (in this case Roger) and the horizontal distance from the centre; so assuming the mast is not leaning so far that the top is no longer vertically above the deck, a bdy up the mast should be safer than standing on the deck.

I'm sure Nige will draw us a pretty vector diagram to prove it

 

[claymore]

Re: no starting engines?

We always put a 40gall barrel on deck, fill it with water and then run a pipe down to the seawater intake pipe above the seacock. I always feel I'm doing some good because I can run the engine until the oil is warm and I can flush through the salt water system with some fresh, then finish off with some antifreeze.

 

[Guest]

Well that makes life easier!

In all honesty I'm a coward about heights and I wasn't going to climb the mast ... I did predict that it would get the posting read with some passionate and helpful responses!

I will submit my race application and measure the boat's mast when she's back in the water.

Thanks for al of the ideas.