Yes, Forrest you can repair as suggested. I would keep the two pieces of the pole as two pieces, which makes assembly and disassembly managable. The one piece set up becomes more difficult because of the position/relationship of the jib cheek blocks mounted on the pole and the s.s. bridal pole bracket. Hard to explain here but if the boat is sitting on the beach you will struggle to get the longer pole into the bracket from the rear (you can't mount from the front because of the cheek blocks on the pole). Like I said, hard to explain, and the repair to keep the pole as two pieces is easy.