Jim If your mast is raked forward it can cause the problem you described. Something to check Eldor Mi7 Motu iti -----Original Message----- From: W David Scobie <wdscobie@yahoo.com> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Fri, May 18, 2012 12:36 pm Subject: Re: M_Boats: Bumpety-bump jim: my initial read of your post is you may have the shrouds to tight. jerry's specs' for the M17 are for the rigging to be snug, but not tight. my M17's mast has no radius cut at the bottom and shrouds are 'just a bit' ooser than some other M17's i've compared rigging. as i raise/lower the mast here is a _slight_ 'tension moment' where the mast needs and extra push/pull to aise/lower at the point the mast is almost upright. my 'slightly loose' shrouds has caused no noticeable performance loss and means hat after raising the mast i only have to adjust the backstay. additionally, and most importantly, the rig hasn't gone over the side ;-) some folks loosen the all the standing rigging 'just a bit' to raise/lower the ast. if Gary Hyde sees this post maybe he can post a picture of the 'foot' radius he ut in his M17's mast. i have not cut a radius at the foot of my mast. : Dave Scobie : M17 #375 SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com : Sage Marine - www.sagemarine.com --- On Fri, 5/18/12, James Poulakis <picfo@comcast.net> wrote: Fellow Jack Tars, Spirit is a 2007 M17. When I try to raise the mast with the shrouds set two things happen: 1) The section that runs crosswise inside the Dwyer mast hangs up on a bolt that sticks up from the mast step. I have almost eliminated this by making a semi-circular clearance cutout in this section but I still get a snag now and then. 2) Even if the mast clears the bolt I still hit a "bump" right before the mast goes full upright. One of Jerry's recent posts says that this is because the base of the mast isn't properly radiused. Cutting a radius using the distance from the center of the pivot bolt to the base of the mast as a guide makes geometric sense, but it cuts away a LOT of the aft edge of the mast base. I'm wondering if this is going to compromise the mast in some way. Has anyone done this? Jim M-17 "Spirit"