Going up the mast requires planning, careful inspection
A boatswain is a warrant officer in the U.S. and British navies, or a subordinate officer in the merchant marine, who is responsible for most things that happen on deck. The word boatswain is pronounced bosun and has also come to be spelled so.A bosun’s chair is used to haul a sailor up the mast on a halyard to do repair work or inspect the rigging. It was once a wooden plank with stout lines passing underneath it and up into a bridle at chest level. Its weaknesses were that it was hard to sit on for any length of time and there was no back support. You could easily fall backward out of the chair. Consequently, you had only one hand to work with aloft because the other was permanently engaged in a convulsive grip on the nearest spar or rigging wire.The plank has now largely been ousted by fabric chairs with comfortable backs and cushioned seats for today’s pampered derrieres. It’s almost impossible to accidentally fall out of one of these bosun’s armchairs, so it’s much easier to use two hands for the work aloft. These chairs often also incorporate built-in pockets for tools and gear; there’s no need to send all that stuff up in a separate bucket.Some bosun’s chairs are more like circus acrobats’ harnesses, attaching near the hips and allowing you to swirl and spin and do cartwheels aloft—if that is what the skipper requires. These are really climbing harnesses, not chairs, and you’ll see them in action in the America’s Cup series, when some poor foredeck hand has to go up in midrace to untangle a snarl of lines or canvas. They might also have some appeal to athletic sailors seeking a little adventure on otherwise boring trips to the masthead.
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| A bosun’s chair enables you to ascend the mast on a halyard for repair work or to inspect the rigging. Modern fabric chairs incorporate pockets for tools |
No matter what kind of chair you use, you are at the mercy of the winchers and tailers down below. Never trust them. Be sure to take a personal safety tether with you and clip it on at every opportunity. Inspect the halyard thoroughly before you are hoisted on it, and don’t trust the clip or shackle that normally joins it to the head of the sail. Use a light line to bind the chair’s bridle to the halyard, if possible, and take many turns. Or, if there are plenty of slackers about on deck, have them devise a second safety halyard for you, and clip it on.Cruising boats often have mast steps that allow you to climb up without having to depend on anyone else for help, but they create significant windage and are expensive to install. There are also temporary steps comprising loops of Dacron tape sewn to stout line. To use them, hoist the line in the mast groove where the mainsail luff or slides normally fit. In theory, it’s a good idea; in practice, it’s not as easy as you might think. But it’s certainly a convenient piece of gear for a singlehanded voyager.Some enterprising sailors haul themselves up the mast in a bosun’s chair by using counter-weights. Fill some plastic jugs with water and raise them to the masthead on a halyard. Then attach the chair to the halyard, and let the weight of the jugs pull you up the mast. You no doubt will sense the danger inherent when the water jugs weigh more than you do: you could ascend to the masthead much faster than you anticipated, and spend a lot more time up there than you had planned.Beware, too, of stepping out of the bosun’s chair straight onto the deck. Without your weight to counterbalance them, the water jugs will descend speedily and smite you mightily upon the head. If you’re using jugs, be sure to think deeply before you act.Yet another alternative means of going aloft solo is to ascend a rope by means of rock-climbing aids, such as mechanical ascenders (which slide up the rope, then grip when needed) and prusik knots (which accomplish much the same thing).See also
Mast Steps
