How we climb the mast

© 2008 - Miss Moneypenny J and K All rights reserved.

We have a strange situation on our boat- Jay is actually smaller and lighter than Kat (frustrating but true!) But it does mean that it makes much more sense for Jay to climb the mast, while Kat runs the safety line and lowers him back down. It also helps that Jay has amazing upper arm strength, so he can pull himself up. All this means we've developed our own system so the two of us can sort out whatever problems develop over our heads without the need for electric winches or other people.

Firstly, he climbs into the bosuns chair, which is a bit like a pre-stuck nappy. Put each leg in, and then pull it up over the hips to sit around the waist. As you can see from the picture below left, it has two pockets attached which are essential for taking tools, drinks etc up there.

And once he's back on terra firma, a quick adjustment is always in order. :)

Once he's got the chair on, he secures the clip to our main halyard, which we have tied off really really securely. This halyard doesn't move- the slider with the blue and purple handle moves up and down it. As you can see from the picture on the left, the strap hangs loosely around his neck to keep it high and out of the way- don't worry, there is no way he can hang himself. We tried it! :) The waist straps hook into this handle by a carrabena.

The strap with the orange handle also goes onto this line. This handle attaches to the foot strap- which is a loop of rope he puts his foot into. This also moves up and down the blue rope (our main halyard.

Finally, he can take his bodyweight onto the rope, attach the safty line which is our staysail halyard. This rope is pulled in as he goes up, allowing safety in case the main halyard snaps. This is the bowline you can see right at the top of the little picture on the left.

This safety line is what lowers him back down again. He basically lets go of the clips at the top, puts all his weight onto the safety line and Kat slowly lets it out from on deck, which lowers him back down. We will try and put a video on of him going up and coming back down.