OK: It looks beautiful, and when taken as a whole, is clear evidence that those fours hours would have been better spent, I don't know... practicing??? (Hey, you asked...)

On the bright side, at least you remembered to let go of the Hot Stick. Too many of us have tiller remnants from when that goes wrong...

Mike

A drysuit? Really? I would have been sailing naked in that sh!t.

Where's the risk in that, Lee? You don't have body hair; you have a pelt.

the bottom of your hulls look very nice and shiny

thank you for showing the finely polished hulls to us at great personal sacrifice.

If nothing broke, then you did a great job. Better than I have done so far. :-)

I did learn this mast is heavier than my old one. Couldn't right the boat. Had to get help. I could get it out of the water, but not past horizontal.

I think I'm going to take the top off, pull the foam and re-do it as thin as I can and see if that does the trick. I'm borderline anyways.

Maybe my tapered main halyard was enough with my last boat? Kinda doubt it.

How about inserting a 4' long tube type bladder at the tip and fill it with helium?

Once it's at horizontal, it should fly up practically on its own.

I know, just couldn't get it there. Close, but not quite. My last boat, putting my arm over my head made the difference between getting it back up our not.

drink more beer

I had the same thing happen after a spill, the mast would only get to horizontal and no more. It just wasn't windy enough to get it to blow up any more. Then I remembered Karl saying he put his arms up over his head, so I did, and slooooowly it came back up! I never thought my arms were that 'heavy' (more like chicken wings) but I guess since they are at the far end of the lever, every ounce helps.

I had an encounter with a Sasquatch once...he just stood there looking at me in admiration.