I used 1" wood dowel..no problems..

I used a 1 1/4" AL spin pole from West Marine for my heavier Hobie SX-18 mast (with compost tip) when I had one. No problems, except for the time it takes.

The good news is that the highest load is at the very bottom of the hoist, so if it's fails, it will probably do so before the mast is lifted.

Gratuitous graphic:

alright guys, all this talk about eZ steppers got me motivated to build one this morning. Check it out.

I haven't taken it all of the way up yet because I was alone.

One question, should I leave any slack in the side to side stabilizers? Will they tighten or loosen as the mast goes up?

another

again

1 more with the rear support. 2x4's with a galvanized bolt. I put washers between the boards.

I lowered the mast with the ginpole. Worked great. I used the spi halyard as a safety,
main halyard attached to the ginpole,
winch to do the work,
strapped the rear crossbar to the slipway,
and just for backup I used my main sheet and blocks attached between the bow shroud and front bridle in case the winch didn't work.
I used the trap wires for anti-sway but it wasn't necessary as there was no wind.
I attached them and the gin pole side stays to the crossbar by sticking a pole into the crossbar.
It was so easy, that I raised it up again. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Not sure the trap wires were necessary as they were very slack as the mast went down and swaying wasn't an issue.
Also found that by using the main halyard (tied to the ginpole) this kept the mast sideways because it is attached to the rear of the mast and naturally pulled it sideways. Although I did have the mast follower attached to the ginpole via a piece of angle iron. This I think was overkill.

Thanks everyone.

As long as the stabilizers are in a straight line through the pivot point of the base of the mast (i.e. all on the main beam), you should make them tight and shouldn't expect them to get any tighter as the mast goes up. I'm having difficulty comprehending how the trapeze lines are working in your pictures...they look like they attach to the lines that are supporting the gin pole - that could be a geometry problem if they are not attached directly to the main beam.

Oh...I see it here

http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/87473-EZstepper002.jpg

Yeah, that's a problem. With the mast down, the trap lines should still firmly stabilize it to keep it from swinging side to side. It looks like your mast can swing a bit and could make a pretty dramatic swoop to one side once it comes off the fork. You should find a way to attach the trap lines in a straight line and tight to the main beam somewhere - further outboard is better but not absolutely necessary.

Jake,

right you are... the stabilizer goes around the hull in front of the beam. That is as far outboard as I can get it. I tied a stainless ring into the line right at the beam and them tied a caribeaner on the end. I loop the line around the hull and attach it back to itself and then clip the trap into the beaner. The mast will sway about 2 feet, thats it. Too easy!

Before I lowered the mast I fixed the trap lines to the front xbar. They were very tight when I started lowering the mast, but I noticed that by the time the mast was down they were very slack. As I mentioned there wasn't any wind to speak of. I can only assume that if they had been tight before raising the mast that they would have possibly damaged something as they got tighter during the raise. Even though the xbar is close to the place where it would be 90 degrees to the mast, it is lower than the point of rotation. (mast base ball)
It's hard to explain this except to say that if the mast is raised and you drew a line 90 degrees (to the mast) (in other words horizontal) out from the centre of rotation of the mast ball, the xbar is actually below that.
Therefore the traps will tighten up when raising and slack off when lowering.

For some reason I did not notice this happening with the ginpole stabilizers. Not sure why, maybe the rope was stretchier than the mostly cable trap wires. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />