Yep. Chuck H pulled/twisted, Matt M pulled/twisted, I pulled/twisted. It was not happening - it also looked like the ring got high enough to "jump" out of the top of the sailtrack and made pulling on the halyard a lot tougher, as well. Complete fubar.

Funny thing about that episode....It was the last day of the series and in the last race I was over the starting line early (returned to clear), then had a minor rudder issue and went back to the beach (and got a DNF) - I dropped out because I was thinking that I could be first off the beach for my 8 hour drive home. This problem made me LAST off the beach, LAST on the trailer and practically LAST out of the parking lot. The sailing gods beat me to death about quitting that race!! Never happen again.

Since then I've put the sail up 7 or 8 times to get it all figured out and I THINK the line is forward of the ring (my pin goes from starboard to port). I figured that if the line was behind the hook it was exerting pressure on the ring as the halyard went through he top pully on the mast and basically prevented it from sliding back over the hook - no matter what.

I'll double check next time.

Be wary of the sailng gods.