Thanks Bill, I was hoping you might chime in. I did get a set of Harken exit blks on your advice, although I haven't installed them yet. Yeah, it looks reasonable to get the mast base off, and I don't have any corrosion. My biggest concern is how to get the upper blk assembly reattached to the thru bolt once I release it. What's the trick? I'm sure this is the stock set up, do you know what puchase it is? The dnhl line exits the mast, then goes to a bullet blk tied to the tack, then ties off near the base, (doubling whatever is internal?). That sound right?
I'm pretty exicted, I've had it out one weekend so far and it's sweet, so easily powered up, so sensitve to drive. I've done your rudder mods(how do you keep the rudders dry, now that they've got a few extra holes in 'em?), replaced all running rigging, 4 carbo ratchamatics, 10 to 1 tapered mainsheet, new SNU snuffer and Glaser spin, longer carbon pole, and raised the spin hlyd. Now I just wanna play with it!
Thanks for all the advice guys!

Dave

Dave