Blair,

The halyard if in good shape will hold you.
Make sure to have a spotter and use another halyard as a safety line.

The friction is likely the mast head sheave, you will likely be loading it if you use the main halyard to hoist yourself. I have not done this and look forward to suggestions here about how to unload this sheave to work on it. I will assume you would take up your load with the safety halyard.

I hate working at heights, my sphincter and thighs are sore for a week from the love lock I have on the mast when going up there.

Aside from cushioning the blow, I'm guessing the spotter is there to call 911?

Even if you ascend yourself, the spotter can be hauling the safety line attached to your chair or harness. This means that the only thing you don't have a backup for is failure of the chair or harness itself.

Some folks attach the ascension line to the chair and then the safety line to a harness, so they are REALLY extra safe.

You should have a sturdy bag for tools and supplies and an appropriate line to haul it from the deck to you at the top of the mast. Your helper can, hopefully, fetch the tool you forgot or didn't realize you needed and then you can haul it up. You do not want to have to climb down and back up because you need another tool.

Good luck.

In addition to the backup halyard, I make a rule to tape shut the shackle that attaches the halyard(s) to the chair. I was told of a guy in the marina where I bought my boat who was killed when the shackle opened and dropped him to the deck.

I, and many others, do not even use the shackle, but rather tie a bowline. One downside to this is that you lose a few inches of vertical travel.

I could justify using a taped shackle as long as there is a safety line.

Hey Blair,

Just did this myself last weekend. There are of course, several options, depending on if you've got a helper or are going it alone. For going it solo, I usually use the main halyard, and secure the halyard shackle at the base of the mast (there's a ring there on my mast), and tension it with one of the winches to reduce how much 'play' there is in the halyard. I then climb using standard climbing gear (climbing harness, with an ascender attached to a short 3-4' line, and another ascender attached to an etrier). I alternate inching my way up the halyard, putting my weight on the harness ascender, then raising the etrier and putting my weight on that. So far, it's worked well, but it certainly gets your heart racing when you're swinging around at the top of the mast.

I'd much prefer the easy route of a helper and a bosun's chair, but usually don't have the option, since no one seems that interested in working on the boat if no sailing is involved...

Well-timed post as I'm planning on exactly the same thing, with a climbing harness and ascenders I'm going to buy at REI.

I was also planning on using the halyard as a static line, cleating it at the base of the mast, and not relying on the shackle to support my weight. I was thinking of using the shackle for the safety line, but am now having second thoughts.

Quick question: do our standard halyard lines (I'm pretty sure mine are Catalina OEM) fit in the 9-11mm range supported by most standard climbing ascenders?

I don't like to go up the mast either. What I do is ask the smallest guy in the neighborhood to pull me up in a boson chair. He'll usually respond with, "Hey your a lot bigger than me, so why don't I get into th boson chair and you pull me up.""

My 105 pound wife has no problem with me hauling her up the mast, but she really can't do much when she is up there. She is not so happy about the reverse process.

Going up the mast,one of my least favorite things to do. Tie your halyard,then attach the shackle. Tie your safty line,then attach the shackle. Now you have four failure points before you fall,unless your harness our chair fails. The spotter is there to put tools in the bag that you forgot to bring the first trip up. Unless you forgot the tag line for the bag. And he can also call the fire department if you passout while at the top, which is what I had to do when I was the spotter.

I was planning to do this same thing - antenna problem. An other way to do this is to use the jib halyard and use the electric windlass to go up. Use the main halyard for safety. A second person is needed to operate the windlass. Since it is electric going up is very easy. An additional block is needed to be placed at the base of the roller furler. To save pain from the pressure on my hips I added a 5/8" plywood on the bottom of the chair. The second person can also help with putting the tool you need - use a basket for more tools.

Blair is lucky - he will not have to climb the mast since he can step the mast instead :)

I never want to completely trust one system when I go up.

I use a mountain climbing harness and carabiners. I NEVER trust the halyard shackle and I would not personally trust just a bosun's chair, if there's any way I could slip out. (Think about what happens if it turns upside down.) Mountain climbing harnesses are designed so that you cannot slip out and they can take a strong shock load if you fall.

I also attached small ratchet-locking straps every so many feet as I go up and hook into them.... like mountain climbers do with pitons. That way If the halyard does fail, I can only fall a few feet below the highest strap.

See my other post from several months ago about my Mast-Mate system.

[QUOTE=blair;17584]Ben,

That mast mate looks interesting.

I made it up and down my mast in one piece.
My system needs to be fine tuned a little, but overall it was solid.[/QUOTE]

Blair -- can you describe your system a bit more?

I also tried it this weekend with marginal success, and am looking for ways to improve.

Went to REI and purchased a climbing harness, Petzl Grigri, Petzl Ascender, some webbing slings to use as foot loops, and carabeners.

Tied the spinnaker halyard to the mast cleat and attached the ascender and foot loops. Used the main halyard in the grigri.

Biggest problem I had was the amount of stretch in my halyards. Because I had everything set up on two separate lines, only one would stretch at a time. Thus each iteration of alternating weight between feet and harness only resulted in 2-3 inches of vertical travel, which was a bit exhausting.

I will say the grigri made getting *down* easy (I only made it about 1/3 of the way up).

Also, I kept feeling like I might fall upside-down in the climbing harness... Not sure if this is a harness sizing issue or what. I don't have a lot of recent rock-climbing experience.

All in, the kit cost me around $350. I'm tempted just to return it all to REI and get an ATN Mastclimber for $260.

The alternative (might try next weekend) is using the ascender and grigri on one line, and then having a safety line tailed by someone on deck. Of course, this takes out the whole goal of ascending without assistance...

Reviewing all of the above posts makes me want to laugh when I remember seeing a local rigger [I]free climbing[/I] the mast of a 45 ft boat, like he was climbing a coconut tree; bare feet and all. No attachment to anything until he got to the top, then hooked onto something and pulled up his tools on a rope. Crazy. Sure as heck not something I would try, though at age 60, it's not likely I'd try. I hope to never go up the mast ever again, 2 or 3 times is more than enough in one lifetime as far as I'm concerned.

I don't climb using the harness as a primary. It's just a backup system, in case the main halyard breaks and the Mast-Mate falls...or I faint or slip or some such while climbing the Mast-Mate.

If it feels like you are going to go upside-down and/or slip out, I think there is something wrong with the harness fit or whatever. I would take it all to a good indoor climbing place and learn this the right way...or return it and get that ATN system designed for this work. This is dangerous work...or can be. Not something to take lightly.

Just my 2 cents.

Whenever someone goes up our mast, we re-reeve the halyard across the deck to a jib sheet fairlead and use the jib sheets. We NEVER use the small halyard winches.

It's a lot easier getting down to use a brake like a Gri-Gri, instead of inching down repeatedly attach-detaching the ascenders.

[QUOTE=blair;17610]David from Seattle,

Glad you didn't get hurt. Your story of your journey scared me. I don't recommend anyone try this unless you are very confident in your abilities and knowledge of your ascending/descending system.

Although this is my first time up the mast, I have been a rock climber for over 40 years and have mechanically ascending a fixed line many times.

I will post up my rig set up when I get off work today.[/QUOTE]

After talking to a few of my more climbing-saavy friends, it sounds like it might just be the *feeling* that I'm going to flip around rather than it being an actual possibility. I suspect a trip to the REI flagship to get their view on the appropriateness of the harness (I purchased it from them online) will be a lot of help. REI also has a climbing wall to test it out (that's where I had a bit of practice with the grigri).

Please do give me an update as to you set-up. the ATN product has one ascending a single static line without a safety, which I suspect alleviates the "stretch" problem I'm encountering.

I purchased an ATN Topclimber years ago when we still had our C34. I have been up the masts on a variety of boats many times over the last 40 years, mostly in traditional bosun's chairs, but after we gave up racing and the deck apes went on to other boats I found it difficult to find anyone a)willing and b) I trusted to winch me up. The Topclimber takes a little practice but once I figured it out proved easy to use to get myself unassisted up and down the mast. I did have a very scary experience when one of the ascender/rope clutch units - the one holding the chair - started to fall apart (pin holding the lever arm popped mostly out when I was up at the top and just starting down after the C clip retaining it fell off). A very long and colorful report went to Practical Sailor. ATN sent a replacement quickly and no problems since then but I do check and use a safety line as a back up. The newer version has a redesigned ascender.
I keep the Topclimber rig on a dedicated static line that I tie to a jib halyard using a square knot. It is important to get this knot as high up the mast as possible if working at the masthead since otherwise you are not going to get the chair far enough up to reach the masthead. I run the static line thru a block at the base of the mast back to a sheet winch, and then winch the jib halyard tight to remove slack in the halyard. After that I tension the static line with the sheet winch so that it is taught enough to make climbing easy. I fasten the spinnaker halyard to the base of the mast and tension it so that it runs parallel to the static line, then tie a short section of line to the chair with a bowline and to the spinnaker halyard with a camel hitch as a safety line. I just slide the camel hitch along as I climb or descend for a safety (probably unnecessary but it makes me feel better). This is a great system and the best way I have found to go up on my own.