Thanks for the input. My cat is an Escape Playcat. The mast is light but it is easy to break the ball (according to the original owner). My difficulty is that once I have the mast raised it is hard to keep it stable while attaching the stays. My thinking vis-a-vis the extra mast stand is that the current one is quite close to the forward crossbar (and therefore the mast base/ball) and I wanted to create a better angle to raise the mast by placing the new stand about two feet forward of the current one. The Playcat does not have any cleats on the mast (nor can trapezes be attached) - the stays are attached to the leading edge of the mast. It is a very easy setup with two people. Perhaps it will simply take practice. I could attempt to use the existing hand winch but this just doesn't seem practical as I might have to grow an extra arm. I need something (instead of someone!) to hold the mast steady while attaching the stays. I am inexperienced with mast stepping on cats as most of my sailing has been on small monohulls such as a Sunfish which are tremendously easy to rig.

Thanks again for any further input.

J