Fantastic info gary thankyou ,i wondered what that 1/2 meter of rope was doing there. And much clearer now as to what is going where,thanks to you and journeyman. We actually tied it off as you described just to work out what was going on . So we were in the ballpark by the sounds. I think the sidestays might be fairly old with just one ring to attach D shackle, so no adjustment there. As far as i can see the mast footing is very basic, Being just a male /female fitting,having the male end on the mast ,i will look closly again for what you described as mast base pivot pin but have not seen any obvious locking pin . Q:1 can you fit these items to older masts. Also a few of the diamond shaped spreader arms are loose and a little out of shape/position, do you know of any one that can help with tuning up masts
Thanks again Brett
Corsair