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Getting Back Down is the Other Half . . .
We were unstepping the mizzen and I was "elected" to go up and undo the triatic stay. They hoisted me to the top and left me to loosen the triatic turnbuckle to gain slack while the others untaped the lower turnbuckles on the shrouds. We all thought the mizzen would stand on its own without the stay.
I proceeded to loosen the turnbuckle and as I got to the end, the stay pulled away. I held on hard for a few seconds but it got yanked out of my hand. By the time I realized what was happening, I was in the water," (Claim #932882A).
There are many reasons to go aloft on a sailboat: maybe you lost a halyard up the mast, an antenna needs replacing, you want to check upper swages, spreaders need taping, etc. But there's also a compelling reason why a lot of people are reluctant to got aloft: gravity. What goes up must come down, maybe quickly, and if you're not careful you could be hurt.
If you don't want to go aloft, don't. Any work that needs to be done, you can hire a rigger to take care of whatever problem needs correcting. An occasional inspection of the rig by a professional is a good idea anyway. But if you do go aloft, here are a few things to check before you go.
Checklist and Suggestions
Don't go aloft in a busy harbor. A professional rigger in Connecticut was thrown into the water when the 24' boat he was working on was dismasted. The rigger had been at the masthead removing the furling gear when the boat was rocked by the wake of a 42' performance boat. A spinnaker halyard secured to a foredeck cleat was not adequate to steady the mast, especially with so much weight aloft. The sailboat's mooring was in a "no-wake" area, but the approaching boat did not slow down until he was abeam of the sailboat, (Claim #9402922A).Whoever takes you to the top of the mast should know what he or she is doing. Whenever someone goes aloft, there should be at least two people on deck-one to grind and a second to tail. One person should never do both jobs, even when the hoisting is being done with a self-tailing winch. When lowering the chair, the halyard should be let out hand over hand slowly. Allowing the halyard to run through your hands is dangerous - the line may burn your hands and be impossible to grasp.
Dexter Holaday, a marine surveyor in Connecticut, could have been seriously injured when a woman who was tailing let go of the line. Dexter yelled "stop" as he approached the masthead, and the woman responded by letting go of the line. He plunged toward the deck but someone had the presence of mind to step on the line. Dexter, incidentally, no longer goes aloft when he does a survey.
Check the halyard. Depending on where and how it is used, a polyester (Dacron(r)) halyard should last eight to 10 years. Failure can occur sooner in the tropics or on boats that are frequently raced hard. Fortunately, inspecting a halyard takes only a few moments and leaves little to chance; Polyester line that looks OK on the outside will be OK on the inside.
Conversely, a halyard that is old and frayed can't be relied on. A halyard that was being used to hoist a Florida man aloft broke, according to the surveyor's report, for no other reason than it was old and hadn't been inspected before it was used. The man who was being hoisted bounced off of the boom but, luckily, was not seriously injured. All of the other halyards on the boat had recently been replaced, except the one that was used (Claim #9508410).
While the entire halyard should be inspected, failure is most likely to occur within a few feet of the shackle, at the point where it rests against the masthead sheave while the sail is under load. Failure can also occur at the wire-to-rope splice or the shackle splice.
Check the condition of the mast itself. A man was killed this past fall when his rotted wood mast snapped as he was being hoisted aloft (Claim #9673822A). Aluminum masts don't rot, but maststeps corrode and swage fittings deteriorate and let go. While there haven't been any instances in the BoatUS Marine Insurance claim files of injuries from deteriorated aluminum masts falling, it is still advisable to have a mast pulled periodically so that the mast itself as well as the standing rigging can be inspected carefully while the rig is horizontal. (Boatyards pull masts without sending anyone aloft.)
Other suggestions. Tape the shackle pin to prevent its accidentally being opened. You can also eliminate the possibility of the shackle opening by tying a rope halyard directly to the chair.
Take whatever tools you'll need: screwdrivers, pliers, a small hammer, lubricant, mirror (for hard-to-see areas), extra cotter pins, and rigging tape, etc. Put them in a tool pouch or use a boatswain's chair with tool pockets and Velcro flaps. Whenever possible, use lanyards on the tools. The only thing worse than making the crew haul you up and down the mast getting tools you forgot is to drop a tool on someone's head. (You can also help the grinder's morale by using your feet and hands to help hoist yourself up.)
Finally, have the crew hoist you a foot or two above the deck and then stop and bounce up and down. If something is amiss, it's best to find out before you reach the masthead.
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