Bruce, Years ago I bought a gin pole rig (1" square aluminum tubing) for raising the rather tall mast of my catamaran; it has a padded semicircle on one end that straps to the mast, and adjustable nylon straps to stabilize the mast from side to side as it rises. Surely those are still commercially available for the cat gang, and would be adaptable to a Montgomery. One of these days I will have to dig it out and try it on the M; it would be easy to fabricate at home. Tom M17 Scintilla On Mar 20, 2010, at 9:27 PM, Bruce Ward wrote:

Thanks Tom. My shoulders are increasingly problematic. I have built an adjustable mast crutch for the stern to help in this regard. I don't have anything for the bow as I just carry the mast upon the pulpit. I use the gin pole approach to ensure I don't get hurt. There is a good reference animation on a Kent Ranger 26 site. I am still hoping to use the boom and may simply have a machine shop fabricate a fitting to slide the gooseneck in if I don't find a chandler that can help. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

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