[QUOTE=plebel;22338]
Does someone know if the smaller pin held by a cotter pin in this photo is the attach point?

Also, what do people typically use the second sheeve for, if anything?
[/QUOTE]
That is indeed the pin used for a fixed topping lift.

I was just up there a month ago, to remove the fixed topping lift and drop a line over the second sheave (thence down the mast, out the exit plate, to a turning block led aft) so that we could adjust from the cockpit for the Dutchman system we just added (hopefully this will make reefing easier as well), and gives one a spare halyard in an emergency.
There was a discussion on this topic not long ago with different approaches folks had taken [url]http://www.c36ia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2589&highlight=topping+lift...

[QUOTE=plebel;22349]
Yes, I had already read that link. Interesting that you give a good report of the ATN mast climber. From the demo video, it looks like one doesn't actually reach the mast until you get to the top. The rest of the time you're working your way along the backstay. So how do you reach something say 1/3 up the mast like a radome?
I'll probably eventually get the MastMate nylon steps. In the meantime a friend is lending me his bosun's chair and power winch.[/QUOTE]

The ATN goes up a static line -- wherever its placed. Odd that the video shows someone climbing a backstay (but one would still need a line alongside it, since it won't work on a wire). I've climbed the mast using the ATN at least a half-dozen times thus far ascending the main halyard right alongside the mast (including twice this past weekend -- grrrr -- to work on the steaming light halfway up the mast), so you can reach anything on the mast, including a radome. The more you use it, the easier you get with the required motion. Part of the trick of using it is to make the halyard bar tight so you don't swing too much.

Before I got the ATN I had given serious consideration to the MastMate steps (they looked easier), but one limitation is that you can only work on what is reachable from the mast. This weekend I went out to the ends of the spreaders to inspect and to add jib rollers, and also to add a small block for a line to raise a radar reflector; there is no way one could do that from the steps, obviously. Likewise, another member posted a few years ago about using the ATN to climb the forestay to make a needed repair on it, again not reachable from mast steps. [url]www.c36ia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1668&highlight=climbing[/url] .

Its all about one's comfort (read: [I]fear[/I]) level I suppose (it was pretty significant for me before I went up it the first time). My wife, who professed terror at even watching me climb the first time, after seeing my comfort level with it decided yesterday that she wanted to give it a shot as well, and went about 1/3 of the way up just to try it out. We each wear a harness as well and tie a spare halyard to it as a safety (the other person "spots" that halyard, tightening or slacking every few feet and then locking the rope clutch), and as well a strap securing the climber to the mast, so I feel pretty secure (as long as I don't think too much about it!).

(By the way, congrats on your relaunching; amazing set of photos of your work. )