Make sure the knot in the aussie ring faces away from luff track. If your mast still has the "flapper" above the halyard hook just use the halyard to pull the sail UP until the flapper falls down and then the aussie ring will slide over the flapper and the sail will lower. This arrangement was not very popular because it was hard to hook the ring UNDER the flapper when raiising the sail, so many people simply removed the flapper, leaving only the halyard hook protruding from the mast.



If this is your arrangement, pull the halyard enough to lift the aussie ring off the hook, use the mast rotator to rotate the mast all the way to the side, you will now have a lot of friction for lowering the sail so I use my downhaul (8:1) to pull the sail down enough to where the ring clears the hook then you can recenter the mast and the sail will easily lower.



Depending whether the offset of your aussie ring is on the port or starboard side (when you attach the shackle) of the mast may affect whether you rotate your mast to port or starboard side for lowering the sail.

W/W