Of course if he's already offered beer it's hard to pull back now....

I'm not familiar with the P19, but why do you have to disconnect the shrowds for mast stepping? I think I did this once on a smaller Prindle. The shrowds were too tight and the mast would stop about 3/4 of the way up because the shrowds would reach full tension. Maybe you need to loosen these for mast stepping, and then tighten them once the mast is up and the forestay attached.

Last year in Ft. Lauderdale I was setting up my boat, and all of a sudden WHAM!..... a mast came down across my cat from the guy setting up next to me. Ten minutes later, another mast came down on my cat from the guy on the other side!!!! I couldn't believe it!! Two masts down across my cat in a ten minute period and no damage to my boat! I had never before and have never since seen any masts come down that way. The first guy was doing just what I stated above. He had raised the mast and was singlehandedly trying to tension the shrowd. He must have gotten distracted or something, because I didn't even hear him say "watch out!"

The mast on my Hobie 18 is heavy and needs at least 2 people to step (3 of course is always better). I bought an EZ Step to solve this problem since I always have to step the mast solo, and it works great.

BTW, I bit the bullet and bought a shiny new jib, and since the colors were not going to match with my old dilapitated main, I also got a new one of those Should be getting them in a few days.