I have looked around and found that Greg’s description seems similar to the “ATN Topclimber” product for which people can watch videos on youtube and get prices (about $300) from marinas
You can duplicate the ATN Topclimber gear by purchasing the same equipment from a rock climbing store for somewhat less (< 1/2) than the “marine” version. I find using it to be a certain amount of bother and work. Perhaps it becomes easier with more practice. There are few other choices if working alone, but with help it is easier in my opinion to crank someone up with the halyard winch. Easiest of all is to have someone push the button on the electric halyard winch .
For those recommending rock climbing harnesses instead of the traditional plank: when choosing a harness, choose one designed for expedition work or “extended hangs”. These have wider leg straps, so it takes nearly 30 minutes to completely cut off the circulation in your legs, rather than just 10. The one sold by Spinlock is in fact made by Petzl (I believe it is the Calidris model) with a very few additions, available from mountaineering stores for about 1/2 what Spinlock wants.
Best thing is to go to a rock climbing store who can both sell you the equipment and train you in its use.
Several years before mast climbing devices such as the ATN Topclimber became available I read an article in a sailing magazine describing the use of Jumars, or other rock climbing ascenders, to go up a mast. One ascender is attached to your bosun’s chair and the other is attached to a Spanish bowline for your feet. Both ascenders are then attached to a low-stretch climbing rope that you have running from the halyard shackle (hoisted to the top of the mast) to a secure point on deck. You then climb the rope/mast inch-worm fashion by sequentially lifting your feet then your seat. I used this technique many, many times to go up the mast on my previous boat, a Pearson 40. It will even work for descending, but it is a bit tiresome coming down. I preferred getting my wife, or anyone I saw on the dock, to slowly lower me to the deck. In climbing the mast this way, I generally had a second halyard attached to the bosun’s chair as backup. I also had a securing line around the mast as I went up.
This system is great for getting up and down the mast when you have to do so by yourself. However, it is also very useful for climbing the mast when the person with you doesn’t have the strength to crank you up. I think too that skilled rock climbers have ways of descending that are much faster and less tiresome than using the Jumars. I just never got around to trying them.
Best thing is to go to a rock climbing store who can both sell you the equipment and train you in its use.
Jon Fitch
'Anomaly'
Case in point: A fellow club member went half way up before deciding it was either too high or too much trouble and started down. He got "crosswise" with the climbing apparatus and ended up upside down and unable to extricate himself. After only the briefest jesting at his situation it took about an hour to figure out how to get him down. Luckily this all happened at the club dock on a day when he had a plenitude of willing rescuers. Shudder the thought if he'd tried this where help was not available. We have an award for just such miss adventures but luckily (for the hangee) this year there were plenty of candidates and this situation did not win the award
We've relocated since and marina's here have man lifts which seem a good bargain to this height adverse sailor
So if you want to climb get trained where they can get you down. Or hire the job out.
I have come up with two ways to get up the mast that I have yet to try:
1) purchase a flexible tank (such as made by Vetus), fill it with exactly my weight in water, then winch it to the top of the mast. Tie the running part of the halyard to my chair, then release the line from the winch. This should just counterbalance my weight perfectly, I a can zip up and down the mast at will. In fact there are one-man lifts in grain elevators in the midwest than work on exactly that principle. Now I am imagining zipping up to the top of the mast, having the tank catch on a sharp piece of hardware on deck and rupture....
2) use the wireless control for my windlass by taking the halyard through a block to the gypsy, tying the end to my chair and push the "up" button. Disregarding for the moment the safety aspects of depending on the gypsy, I can imagine holding the "up" button until I am just far enough up the mast that the wireless control goes out of range ..... for "down" too......
Either way, my friend, please let me know where and when, and regardless, I will be honoured
to add a page to Nonsuch Thots by Botts with my take on the results.
The first method reminds me of an old story involving a load of bricks a
mason is attempting to haul to a rooftop using his own weight as a
counterweight. I forget how exactly the story progresses or ends except that
it ends both badly and humorously. Make sure you have someone video tape
either attempt for posterity.
Jon,
This reminds me of a friend who I worked for briefly doing rigging work. He offered that I could use a bosun's chair he had especially built by an electric shop for going up masts single handed. He called it the electric chair. Needless to say I stayed away from that thing and instead enjoyed the hand billy. The name of that thing scared the heck out of me, let alone trying to figure out how it could go wrong. I swore it off without any further thought on the subject. Now your mast climbing methods really have me thinking about the possibilities. The methods described very much reminds me of some sort of an inverse of the Ig Nobel prize that went to the lawn chair with helium balloons and pistol for bringing it down (for a safe landing). I like the flexible tank idea, maybe it could work, small leaks like the kind resulting from dropping an awl or ice pick used for rigging would be just the thing for a slow decent but I would hate to ride on what turned out to be a real seam splitter.
Good luck and take a camera up with you
Barry Michaels
Tally-On NS 36 Ketch
I believe that elevators and drawbridges have been using this simple principle of physics for quite some time now. Controlling it is undoubtedly the key to the application. It would be prudent to have the tank weigh a pound or two less than the human.
I would not try it myself, but then, I am deathly afraid of heights.
.