You can tell the difference if there is a way to smell the inside of the hull through a porthole of even drain hole. If you have either (polyester or epoxy) sitting around you can smell a can of it and compare it to the boat. Each has a very distinct smell that is pretty close to their smell when wet. If you cannot tell the difference find someone who has worked with both. I think that Vinylester is a bit hard to tell from Polyester.

[color:"blue"]Stepping the mast solo[/color] on an A Cat is a snap. At my club unless it is the first time a mast is going up most of the sailors put them up solo anyway. Even if there is someone right there to help. Put the boat on Catwheels about 1/2 the way from the front crossbar to the tip of the bow. This way the boat is sitting on an angle back. Slack the forstays a bit (maybe 2 to 3 inches) but have them attached to the bows. Attach the hinged part from the base of mast to the front crossbar. Stand about the middle of the mast and lift. Walk hand over hand lifting the mast until it settles back on the forstays. Make sure that the boat is pointing in the wind. The mast will stand there by itself with the two forstays as supports. Then go to the shrouds and connect those. When you are done you will have to tighted up the forstays again.

The people at my club that step this way are Pete Melvin, Pease and Jay Glaser, Howie Hamlin and Jeremy Laundergan.

Later,
Dan