Rick, - I stand just behind the mast and rotate to one side as it comes to waist height and set it into the mast carrier in extended position. I am holding the mast at waist level when it is set into carrier - I am 5'-10"- chubby and weak. OR - I have stood in the companionway and lowered from there - but it is a reach to lean forward to initiate the mast pivoting aft and you do not have good leverage on the spar until it is down quite far - lowering on top of the house is fast and I feel like I have good+ control - (I do not remove shrouds - have toggles on all of them at lower terminus) I think it works for me because the mast carrier is very high when extended and it is not a large arc to move the mast thru until it is supported. I CAN see this changing when 'my mind makes a promise that my body can't fill'. I have used block&tackle - 4:1 is ALOT of line to pay out/slow (friction) 3:1 may work ?? Good luck Have Fun! GO In a message dated 5/21/2014 4:51:47 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jdavies104@gmail.com writes: Gary H, Gary O, Howard and Bill, Thanks to you all for your quick and thoughtful responses. I sure love this forum. All the best minds in the M-boat community ready and willing to help. I feel much better about attacking the problem. Gary H, what is the significance of the furler for attaching the tackle to the forestay rather than the jib halyard? I have a CDI furler, but thought it would be easier to take the strain on the jib halyard to ease unpinning the forestay. Bill and Howard, do you think the 4:1 is overkill? It seemed to me that there's a lot of tension as the mast comes down. Is the 1:1 attached at the stemhead really easy to handle? Without the added height of attaching to the trailer support? Gary O, I used to drop the mast manually, but stood on the cockpit seats, moving aft as the mast came down. I somehow can't picture lowering it from the cabin top. Do you stand in front of the mast? Thanks again, guys, Rick M17 # 633 Lynne L On Wednesday, May 21, 2014, Rick Davies <jdavies104@gmail.com<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jdavies104@gmail.com');>> wrote:

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out a simple (meaning without a gin pole) way to lower the mast on my M17 single-handed without having to walk it down the hard way in the cockpit. I thought of attaching one end of the main sheet to the front mast support on the trailer and the other end to the jib halyard. I think someone on the forum described something like this quite a while ago, but I can't find it. I plan on using a line tied around the mast as high as I can reach and secured to the chainplates on each side for lateral support. I'd plan to lower the mast until I can reach it easily from the cockpit, then lower it the rest of the way by hand, so the tension in the support line doesn't get too big as the mast approaches horizontal. Has anyone tried anything like this? Hate it find out it doesn't work the hard way.

Thanks,

Rick M17 #633 Lynne L