I would advise getting a new heavy duty stepping bracket from Murray's. You have to take it completely off the boat while you sail, but it makes the stepping really easy. The older brackets don't always rotate properly, leaving the ball on the bottom of the mast forward of the socket, and making you do some weird wrestling with the mast to get it right. With the HD bracket, the mast drops right in every time.



For single-handed mast stepping, I use the jib halyard to temporarily hold the mast until I can pin the outer forestay. It's pretty easy to hold the mast with one hand once it has been raised and use the other to tension the halyard.