Up The Mast (as published in Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine)
The following is an article I wrote for Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine that is currently on newstands in the June, 2011 edition: Up the Mast By Kevin Walters Sooner or later your mast and the hardware installed on or in it will need inspection, repair or maintenance. Ideally, an inspection of your mast should be done annually. This of course means going up the stick if the mast is already stepped. If your boat isn’t equipped with mast steps or you don’t have specialized mast ascender gear, you can still get the job done with mostly what you already should have on board. The prudent sailor will take the time to learn and practice the procedures to make a successful and safe ascent and descent before they are truly needed. As mentioned, you may need to go up the mast for any number of reasons such as re-taping spreader boots, rigging flag lines, inspecting standing rigging or installing any number of masthead hardware (wind vane, anchor light, antenna, etc.). Therefore...