I acquired a 16' Prindle but did not imagine that the mast was so heavy. Is there a technique for setting it alone? My friend and I could not even do it togrther, but then, we're old. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Check to make sure there's not water in the mast. Have one person put his ear against the mast while the other picks up one end. If there's water inside, you'll hear it flowing past.

There are of course commerically available mast raising systems to assist you. Otherwise, if you can't raise the mast with two people, you definitely won't be able to do it alone. With two people, it should be a piece of cake. One person on either side of the mast. You both pick the mast up. Once the mast is up, one person holds it while the other person jumps down to connect the forestay.

You also need to consider that if you can't raise the mast with two people, you're probably not big enough or strong enough to right the boat in the event that you capsize. You would probably want to consider getting a righting aid or getting a smaller boat.

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I just got a Prindle 18 and I hear ya. It seems to take my whole family to put the mast up. Or at least 3 of us but we are getting better at it. First I bought small winch an mounted it on the raised mast support on my trailor. At the moment my wife runs the while I walk the mast up from behind the boat my sons jumps on the tramp and continues walking it up not so much lifting as offering some side to side support which seems to be our biggest problem.

Now I don't know much about the 16 or even my 18 for that matter but I was shown that if you can provide support lines from the front cross bar even with your mast you with have good side to side support all the way up. If you have trap line (I don't at the moment) you might can pull the shock cord around the front crossbeam on each side providing constant even support all the way up, You cannot allow for the side stays to help you as they do not offer any side to side support until the mast is most of the way up.

I think I could eliminate one person doing this if I can fashion about a 5-6 ft tall tripod mast stand to stand behind my boat and set the mast end in while I hook it to the step hinge. This i think would give enough height that the winch can immediately take the entire load to go up. Once I get a for sure method for supporting the side sway in place and the mast stand I think I could put up the 28ft mast alone. Still makes me nervous though. I just bent my Mast step hinge the other day because when lowering the hinge was somehow forced into the down position and the pin pushed down with it in such a way that it became stuck making impossible to remove the pin and thus disconnect the mast. So while teh mast is on it's stand (which is my sons shoulder for the time being) I to fiddle around and find a wau to pry it loose I could remove the pin. i was unfortunate that it was dusk and literally 3 million mosquitoes were attempting to make a meal of us. I think I ate about a dozen just breathing.

Yes, mast stepping is the hardest part of rigging and de-rigging and is as much an art as it is hard work. After you do it a few 100 times it will get easier <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

A few suggestions:
I used to secure a milk crate on the back beam to secure the mast to the rear beam for transit (with a pfd on it) and to give it some "lift" for putting the pin in the hinge. It required me to sit on the mast while pinning it.. but it worked. I still needed help lifting the mast.

I would NOT use the shock cord (attached to the traps) to secure your mast for side to side motion... I would use trap wires with lines arround the beam tied off through the loops on the end of the wires.

or purchase a mast stepper for about $175. I used to use one on my hobie 18. the mast was a beast. The stepper is a pole that attaches to the mast and uses the winch to pivot the mast. It takes a while to set it up, but when you get it working... it is good for self stepping.

I was thinking as well that I might temporarily rig a rope that I could run up the Halyard and tie the bottoms off on both sides at the fore cross beam then once I got it up I could pull it back down and remove it and reverse the process for taking the mast down, But will that provide a enough side to side support?

For side to side support take a small piece of rope and tie it off inside the beams. Tie the other end onto the trap ring on each side and make sure its tight. The mast will only be able to move front to back and eliminate any side to side movement.

When you are done stuff the line back into the beam for next time.