Ya Pictures would help. I'm not an expert by any means and for my Family the mast can be a real bugger on my Prindle 18 but I can't imagine doing it without some sort of step hinge. Mine is tricky enough with the hinge( My casting is broken through on the the holes for the hinge closest to the mast and has been jury rigged a bit but seems to work ok.) but I'm getting better at it.