[C38] mast winch

[les]

Hi, guys, 
	I fit pauls description as well.  I purchased the WestMarine chair, but
didn't fit.  Nancy went up the mast in it, and it held her so securely
that she didn't feel too much of her natural fear of heights.

	It seemed well made, and the pockets and stuff seemed nicer that the
bucket I had used before, but we ended up using the bucket anyway to
provide a messenger to get stuff up and down.

If you are using a halyard, check the splices very carefully before
relying on them.  Also I recommend tying the line to the bosun chair
rather than using any fitting.  That's assuming you have line for the
halyard.  Those of you with wire halyards have your own issues to check.

I usually tried to schedule any aloft work after one or two sails after
replacing the halyards.  This meant we had new halyards, that had
already been stressed.  I also ran a safety check by tying the halyard
to the motor mount we had on the deck next to the mast and hauling up
until it was bowstring tight.  Just a stress test to make sure all was
well.

DUHH!! I guess I'm overly cautious with aloft work, but falling seems a
bit extreme to me too.

Oh, and as to stowing all the line for a 5:1, we used an old military
duffel, with a sock sewn in to hold the blocks.  I sewed a grommet into
the bag and put the bitter end through that with a stopper knot.  this
meant the line wouldn't get tangled.  to stow the line I always pulled
all the line through the blocks to pull the blocks together, then put
the blocks in the sock, and then the line went into the bag. Not neat,
but easy to stow and deploy.

Regards,
Les H

On Mon, 2012-02-20 at 00:29 -0800, Joseph Launie wrote:
> Paul,
>     What are you using for a bosun's chair? I just tried using my old
> chair and almost fell out the back of the seat. I am not as agile as I
> once was. The West Marine premium chair looks good. Anyone tried it?
> Joe Launie/Macavity
>