Well, so far, once down once up; with another opportunity just around the corner. I decided to lower it to aft. I loosened shrouds as far as I could. "I" may not be enough help, I recommend help, a minimum team of three makes sense to me. My chain plates bent right after I lowered the mast to the FALLING point. No one behind me either. I'm lucky it hit water. My real brainy idea for raising failed and actually turned out to be rather stupid. I ended up using a line to the mast from the roof of a marina building to raise. That's when I learned three people would be nice. The bigger the better. The idea of using a hoist/crane is my dream. YouTube has a few videos, for lighter masts I think. Have thought about using someone else's mast and rigging, I'm not sureanyone else would want to risk scratches. My boat is pretty rough, but I love it dearly and it sails like a dream. Plan on using more than just the mast's rigging. Would be happy to talk, will share contact info. Wishing you all the luck, and be careful. We should come up with several alternatives and possibly share in Articles. Later, J

:: Anyone with experience lowering/raising a tabernacled
:: mast?
::
:: I am planning to lower my mast and change the standing
:: rigging/paint it. I'd like to do this at the dock (I'm
:: on a side tie with lots of room fore and aft). The boat
:: was set up for Santa-cruz and has a tabernacle designed
:: to lower forward.
::
:: I'm not finding much online to describe the technique
::
:: Can the boom be used as a gin pole? Can the shrouds be
:: left attached (loosened)?
::
:: Also, anyone have recs for purchasing replacement
:: standing rigging? Seal's Spars and rigging seems to have
:: a lot of experience with Santana's.
::
:: Any help really appreciated!
::
:: Mike