Tornado,

I can't help you with your current problem with the Amsteel line in the mast. Unless you just seal those holes up and go into the mast track.

To comment on Jakes comment, about drilling "through into the luff track instead of internally in the mast making replacement much easier. There is usually enough room for a small knot behind the bolt rope of the sail." I agree, but I instead drilled 4 holes, 2 on each side, one above the other. The line is fed in one hole on each side, then fed out the other hole on that side and tied off outside. This allows the lines to sit in the corner of the mast grove and to be tied off without interfering with sail or main halyard that are in the groove.

I also concure with Jake to check out Wouters guide. It has a lot of good info and I used some when I re-did my spinnaker halyard.

I have a few photos of my setup at nacramania.com

(Note in the photo below an old haylard tang is still present. I did not remove it because it does not seem to get in the way and I wanted to keep the mast well sealed.)