DETAILS GOING UP THE MAST

A couple of people wanted to hear more about our spinnaker incident, so I’ll give my version of the story.

And as Captain Al knows, all sailing stories should always start with the words:  And there we were….

And there we were, sailing from White Lake Michigan to Frankfort when the wind finally picked up enough to be in the spinnaker zone.  Spinnakers are fun to sail as they are always very colorful and when sailed as designed they can really give great performance in getting the most out of the wind.  But they have a ‘zone’ they like to fly in that is limited to the minimum and maximum wind speed as well as the direction that the wind is coming over the boat.  When the conditions are right and we have Grace in the spinnaker zone, I like to let it fly.

The spinnaker is a special purpose sail and is taken down when not in use and therefore one must set it up each time it is used.  I had gone about the set up making sure all the lines were where they needed to be.  After one last look I didn’t like how the halyard looked at the top of the mast, so Pam and I brought the sail down to reset it.  Apparently when I reattached the shackle to the head of the sail it did not snap completely closed.  As you know from Pam’s post after I hoisted the sail up about half way up the shackle let go and the halyard wrapped itself around a shroud near the top of the mast.  Fortunately it stayed where it was so it could be recovered the next day while we were docked at Jacobson’s Marina in Frankfort.

Going up a 54 foot mast can be a tad bit intimidating.  No matter how you do it you are basically suspended by a line (aka rope if you are a land lubber) and if it fails then gravity will take over in a very unkind way. 

The method I use for going up the mast is by using a device called a Top Climber from a company named ATN.  The way this works is there is a seat fashioned out of nylon webbing that you put on.  The seat is then attached to a couple of rope clutches, similar to what may be used by mountain climbers. 

A line is hoisted to the top of the mast then strung through the rope clutches with the seat at the boat’s deck level. 

Then to go up I have my feet in a couple of stirrups so I can stand up and I move the top rope clutch about a foot or slightly more.  The next step is I now have to lean back in the nylon seat and I tuck my legs up.  This allows me to raise the bottom rope clutch about a foot or slightly more.  When I stand up again I can once again move the top rope clutch about a foot.  This process is repeated until reaching the desired height up the mast. 

After successfully going up the mast and recovering the spinnaker halyard I took a couple of photos and came back down. 

Part of the sailing experience is dealing with things as they come up and it is self satisfying when the problem is solved. 

Enjoy and have fun

Jeff