Thanks, everybody, for the feedback about rigging. Now I'm trying to figure out the solo mast stepping.
I tried something similar to Patrick Ragen's method. I'll post his drawing here again. My main problem is with keeping the mast rotated 90 degrees. The mast is raised now and I'm trying to lower it. Used an 8' 2x4 as a ginpole with the suggested half slice of 4" PVC pipe at the end. My mast has an eliptical cross section, 5x3, so the 4" pipe section is a little smaller than the mast.
Instead of tying a line at the winch end of the 2x4 and connecting it up the mast, I connected the winch to the forestay, going over the end of the 2x4. I secured the pvc with real tight bungies, but it still wanted to rotate a little when I eased off the winch. The shrouds are connected to the front of the mast, so it always tries to face forward when there's tension on the shrouds. Same goes for the forestay.
I guess I'll follow the directions a bit better, replacing the forestay setup with the suggested line 8' up the mast. Any suggestions how to connect there to allow tht mast to be lowered/raised rotated 90 degrees?
