Terry Spragg wrote:

(excellent input & reminders snipped)

You should be prepared to do all this at sea in heavy weather,
anyway. You could need it someday.

I'm not 20 & enroute to Bermuda in a lagging academy race with a
snapped headstay anymore. I am a chicken now & not sure if I've kept a
short enough account with God. :-)

Next time, you should have a spare halyard rigged, damn the extra
weight, you want to fly a fisherman anyway, right?

Ya think? Nottamybote - close friend's new buy. But he's a
professional ropechoker (deckie) & I'm sure he'll come around to such
things...sort of funny that as an engr I hung extra halyards on my own
the first week I had her, go figureg. Extra weight etc. no issue,
big heavy motorsailer. But some mods to masthead(s) needed to hang
anything else. Seems Fischer felt she'd only ever need minimum running
rigging (but robust).

Why not unstep the mast, using the main halyard to lower it?

Lots of interference at the stern to remove for a low enough DIY
routine to reach things w/o the same basic problems as inclining her.
Besides we are basically lazy. ;-) The manlift & a friendly bribe is
sounding better by the minute...

Much thx,
Frank
Chicken