You need a strong helper on a winch to haul you up in the bosun's chair and better still have a second helper to tail the winch. Another light line or free halyard is useful to pull up those last minute items that you forgot to take with you or to lift the end of the stay you are attaching at the mast head.
I have a rope ladder but still need a harness and helper to belay me. But it makes it much easier for my wife who isn't strong enough to haul me aloft and she can't always figure out what what I wanted when she goes up. On that not Annette is pretty brave. She went to the top of the mast on a friend's boat recently to free the swivel on the roller furler. 56 feet up while out in the middle of the Chesapeake. Mark Tamblyn -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Henry Hubbard Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 7:53 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: Broken forestay advice How does a bosun's chair work? Just hook yourself to one end and pull on the other? Don't you need some purchase and some kind of ratchet? You can't use an internal main halyard then, right?? Henry Hubbard Idle Threat C27 #1067 Dahlgren, VA ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 9:34 AM Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: Broken forestay advice >>>Do I need to take the boat out of the water to replace the forestay? > > nah. just attach the spinn and jib halyards to something solid > (stem fitting, etc) and then harden them up real real tight with > a winch. Those will hold the mast in place just fine for you to > go aloft. I usually try to get the dock lines bar tight and have > crew ready to level out the boat in case some nerd wakes you while > you're up. > > it's no biggie. tape the snap shackles shut though. > go aloft on the main halyard. take the tools you need > and drop a messenger in case you forget something...the crew > can send things up on a messenger. take a separate line to > clip into something at the top...some para webbing with a > beener works well...I sometimes make a loop I can step into > to take the weight off my middle once in a while if I know > I'll be aloft for more than a few minutes. > > tf > > >
