[Ian McColgin]

Let's see if I remember it all just sitting here, at least two weeks since last aloft.

The basic tools are:

Comfortable sit-harness. These are available at both marine and mountaineering suppliers. Take the time to get one that fits you well.

Suitable chest harness. This can be as easy as a loop you can make a figure eight across your back and over shoulder/under arm or can be a pricey unit with sewn D rings and all. Again, consult local mountaineering or marine suppliers.

Two ascenders. These are a mechanical evolution of the famed prussic sling. Basically makes it easy to slide the thing up, transfer your weight to the one just slid up, and now slide up the other. There are various ways to arrange this, discussed below.

Five or six carabiners. A couple carabiners for your sit-harness, two for the chest harness and tether, one for a short tether on one ascender, and one more for the descending ring if you get that. Learn from a suitable book or instructor how to have two 'biners in the sit-harness with the gates flipped so's you can't accidentally open into a fall.

Descending ring. A nice touch.

Some sort of snatch block and very strong bungee or rubber snubber that you can attach at the mast base or on deck or, worst case but it works, around the boom at the gooseneck.

The set-up gives more flexibility in how your work aloft than the fixed line often recommended for ascenders.

Set up the main halyard's fall through the block attached by some strong but elastic snubber to the deck or boom. If the boom, you'll be doing all what I describe below in the way of set-up standing a bit precariously on the boom but if you lean a shoulder against the mast, it's not so bad. Anyway, keep a grip on the end of the fall as you suit up, maybe by looping it into your harness temporarily.

This is not a bad time to check you have all your tools. I made a PFD with pockets for my favorite always needed fids and wrenches and pliers and such. A good riggers' bag is essential if you've a bigger job.

Attach the hoist of the main halyard to you sit-harness 'biners. Run it up inside your chest harness.

Attach the ascenders to the fall about at chest level. One ascender should have at least a shortish tether that can 'biner onto your sit-harness alongside the halyard hoist. Two choices from here. Some like a foot loop for each ascender, using the short tether just when belayed and working or resting. The motion is a bit like climbing a ladder.

Others like to rig a double foot harness to the second ascender allowing an automatic rest on the sit-harness while raising the other ascender.

Sit with weight on the sit-harness ascender attached to the halyard fall and on the sit harness attachment to the halyard fall. This gets your weight evenly divided between hoist and fall and stretches the line. Now pull up from the fall's bitter end till you get some decent stress on the block and snubber and taughtline hitch it to the halyard's hoist.

Now when you go up - and it only takes half the effort as a single fixed line - you carry up your slack as you go. The ascenders need some down pull on the halyard to allow you to slide them up and this is the only way to get that without a fixed rope.

With another present and at low altitude, practice going up a few steps and then how to use the ascender to get back down. !!!

When you get where you want to work, you can just sit. I like to lean back almost 45 degrees to where the chest harness against the halyard hoist - remember the hoist is inside the harness - takes some weight. This makes the sit-harness comfortable for really long jobs. I've spent over two hours aloft in great comfort this way.

For a safety line, I pass the check harness tether twice around the mast and let it settle a little loosely at my lap. Should the halyard break, it will tighten as I fall and stop the fall in a couple of feet. Your gratitude at hugging the mast will evaporate as you get uncluttered enough to slide the rest of the way down, but the adrenaline rush with give strength.

You can also prussic the tether to another halyard or even a stay. Just have all arranged that if you fall and are hanging on the tether, you could reach the far end without climbing. It will be enough to ease the tension enough for downward movement.

Depending one the job once you're up, you may need to loosen the end of the fall that comes up from the deck block to that taughtline hitch. For example, maybe you're going out to a spreader tip to foozle on some baggywrinkle that's come adrift. Or you're leaping out to the backstay to rig a nifty doheyhickey for the ensign. Any jobs that take you away from the mast mean you'll need to unfasten the safety tether and then use it to hold you out by your work.

If you like the descending ring for going down, learn how to ease the fall at that taughtline hitch so's you can get a bight over the descending ring. Then, one hand holding at the ring, you can unhook both ascenders and slide down with panache.

Again, practice all the climbing, descending and transferring evolutions at low altitude so if you get entangled, someone can rescue you. Spend the time to get a good fit on the harnesses.

And most of all, have fun. Once you've got it, it's a gas, the view is great, and your neighbors will know you're cool.

G'luck

Ian