Stepping your mast may seem hard, lowering your mast can be DANGEROUS.

Here's a tip I never hear mentioned. Perhaps I'm the only idiot who ever forgets this but here goes...

After sailing and you put your boat back on the trailer, be SURE you tie the boat to the trailer before you drop the mast. It's quite a thrill to drop that mast onto your shoulder and, getting ready to lay it down, having the entire boat tip up as the mast weight shifts aft. Now you're standing on a heavily tilted tramp and no easy way to correct your mistake. Everyone around you will have scattered to avoid the wildly tilting boat and mast, you're having your back broken by the weight of the falling mast, and now you have to groan out a "Little help here, please" while your friends start cracking up at the idiot sailor who forgot to tie the boat.

I have this little diddy I always say just before I rock the mast back, "Pin, power, ties." That is, hinge pin (never forget that, either!), power line check, and scan for boat tie down lines.