Stepping the Mast

A friend and I stepped the mast right at the dock using a gin pole. It was actually very easy. It was so easy, in fact, we did it three times. The first time, we got it in place only to discover that we had tied the sling around the mast too tightly and couldn't get it down. We lowered the mast, retied the sling more loosely, and tried again. A few hours later, while rewarding ourselves with a cold beer in the cockpit and looking up to admire our work, I saw that I had neglected to put the boots on the ends of the spreaders. We were too tired to mess with it that evening, but the next morning we took it down again. This time, we went over every single screw, pin and cotter key from the chicken head to the step. After asking an experienced dock neighbor to do the same, we hoisted it for the final time. With the experience gained doing this, I'd guess we should be able to lower or raise the mast in 30 minutes.