Debbie went up the mast with Spinlock Mast Pro Harness!, - 2012

2012 Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA

Spinlock Mast Pro Harness

Our goal was to climb up the mast to the first few mast steps that were left open. About ¾ the way to the spreaders. 

 The Spinlock Mast Pro Harness is compact and easy to store. Not like a comfortable Bosnian chair. A good Bosnian Chair is bulky and we do not have all that much space. Of course if we chose to use a Bosnian Chair we would find the space. The Spinlock Mast Pro Harness can be used as a Bosnian Chair also and has attachment points for tools etc. So if Debbie needed to swing out onto the far end of a spreader this Spinlock Mast Pro Harness would work great for that also.

Note:
We have found uses for the Bosnian Chair and plan on purchasing a Harken Bosun's Chair soon, 2018.

Debbie the hand model 😃

First Debbie took the Spinlock Mast Pro Harness and adjusted it to fit here. This may need more tweaking for the next time but worked fine for this run up the mast. She said it felt really comfortable but could be adjusted further.

Debbie the Spinlock Mast Pro Harness model :) Yeeeep

1. We wanted to test our new Spinlock Mast Pro Harness as it is being used by us as a safety harness.
2. We also wanted to test the general setup and use of the mast steps. There are other items not in play here yet so we did not want to make this a full blown mast climb. One is we were home from work meaning it will not stay light out all that long.

•  Our halyard is in not-so-good of shape. It is old and too short. It also has a splice for the shackle that is coming apart. This ties to the harness as a safety line for now. We are about to order a new main halyard.
• We do not have our mast climbing block and tackle on the boat. We purchased this from Rigworks years ago to climb the mast on our Catalina. This we can use with the capstan on our anchor windlass to pull one of us up the mast to at least the first mast step when the sail's on. The sails are not on nor the stack pack so getting to the first step is easy now.

We then took the main halyard and tied a bowline knot in it around the loop in the Spinlock Mast Pro Harness.

We then did a test sit down with Debbie in the Spinlock Mast Pro Harness so she could get a feel for the harness and the halyard holding her. Just in case anything happened she would have a clue what it was going to feel like.

No fear here!

And she is still smiling!

 Debbie then stepped on the starboard mast winch as I pulled up all the slack out of the main halyard. She then pulled open the first port mast step and stepped on it pulling herself up. I took the slack out of the halyard. Then she opened the first starboard mast step and stepped on it and then up the mast as I kept pulling the slack from the main halyard. The main halyard and  Spinlock Mast Pro Harness gave Debbie the safety net in case she slipped off the steps or some other bad thing happened.

Our next test will be using the 4-1 block and tackle setup we have for climbing the mast along with the main halyard and using the rope drum on the windlass to pull Debbie up to the first mast step.So this test was a success!