[Rhodes22-list] Bosun's Chair

[Charles Henthorn]

John:
       I have the mast raising crane and used it 4 times already this season.  Twice to get operational at home port, once on for a cruise on Lake Michigan, and once just to tweak the fittings.   To some, raising and lowering the mast may sound scary, but using a bosun's on my Rhodes as tender as it is initially during a gust, really sounds scary to me.     
       For whatever method you use, I have found that just removing the spider webs and the egg sacks you see doesn't rid your mast head of spiders.   For spiders I have inserted some styrofoam in the top of the mast and soaked it well ( besides spraying the entire area and windex) with a spider pesticide.  At least for past two months it seems to have kept the pesky little insects away and the windex free to operate accurately.  
       The alternate to using the pesticide is to go out in a good wind  and tack but continue to a jibe and then another tack and another jibe to twist the webs so tight (turn at least 3 circles) that the pressure of the windex break the webs.  However, this is a temporary fix at best because the next sail will require the same routine.   You must rid the masthead of the spiders causing the problem before there is hope of a permanent solution.
  Rex
     

John Lock <jlock at relevantarts.com> wrote:
  At 11:17 AM 8/10/2007 -0500, you wrote:
>All this talk of bosun's chairs has raised an interesting thought. IIRC
>the R-22 has about 700 lbs of ballast a couple feet below the waterline.
>The mast sticks up about 30 feet above the waterline. Might want to take
>into consideration what your weight on the end of a 30 foot lever is
>going to do to the center of gravity????

Thought about that, but I'd heard others have done it, so it must not 
be a big problem. 'Course I'll wait for calm wind and water to go up.

Cheers!

John Lock
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s/v Pandion - '79 Rhodes 22
Lake Sinclair, GA
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