"Bruce"  wrote in message 
...
 On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 14:21:25 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
  wrote:
"Flying Pig"  wrote in message
...
 Look what I miss while I'm in the woods...
 "Wilbur Hubbard"  wrote in message
   anews.com...
 Things I don't like a
 3) no mast steps (it shouldn't take a committee to ascent to the
 masthead)
 Wilbur Hubbard
 I thought you were one of the ones complaining about how nasty mast 
 steps
 were for tangling lines...
 L8R
 Skip, still looking for that one Pace-Edwards mast step
 -- 
 Morgan 461 #2
 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
 See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
 Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
 and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog
 "Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half
 so
 much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing 
 about
 in
 boats-or *with* boats.
 In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter.  Nothing seems really to matter,
 that's
 the charm of it.
 Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
 destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never 
 get
 anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
 particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do,
 and
 you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
I'm against the kind that you were planning to install. They snag 
halyards.
The kind I have installed are the folding type that can't snag a line if
they tried. No REAL sailor adds anything to his boat that will cause more
trouble than it's worth. That's why I tried to talk you out of your folly
but you wouldn't listen because you have a stubborn streak.
You can just barely see my folding mast steps. They are that unobtrusive.
http://captainneal.wordpress.com/
this particular photo shows them the most:
http://captainneal.files.wordpress.c...dsc00294ps.jpg
Please don't be envious of how my boat shines and Flying Pig is sort of 
all
dull and chalky looking.
Wilbur Hubbard
 Willie-boy, I keep telling you and telling you, keep your mouth shut.
 You just keep talking and talking and proving over and over how little
 you know.
 If you haul up a sail the halyard is tight, or in the case of many
 boats nearly entirely inside the mast. In these cases it does not
 tangle in the mast steps, no matter what kind they are.
Wrong, Dumbo! You show what type of sailor YOU are with the above 
dunderheadedness. (Can you say 'fair weather sailor') It just so happens 
some us sail in gale or near gale conditions. Under those conditions 
external halyards are slapping all over the freaking place when sails are 
raised. It becomes even more of a whipfest when lowering the sails and you 
know, Bruce, what goes up must come down. Duh! Everybody with those pile of 
junk triangular mast loops will end up with a halyard tangled in them when 
dousing sail. And, they will be stuck at the worst time with flogging, 
flailing, out of control sails when they least want or need it. This will 
require a trip up the mast CAUSED BY THE VERY STEPS that are supposed to 
make it less likely that one will need to ascend the mast under emergency 
conditions. Dumb, stupid, lame and bordering on the pathetic, I say.
 It is only at anchor when the sails are down and the halyards dangling
 there beside the mast that they get all snarled up in the steps.
Wrong. See above. And, you probably have a lubberly roll-up headsail system 
so you KNOW NOTHING about nor are you even able to remove a too-large 
headsail and bend on a storm jib, for example when the wind has gotten up. 
So the jib halyard snarls up around a bunch of ill-conceived mast steps and 
you can neither get the too large sail down nor bend on the just right sail. 
I can see now why you failed in your circumnavigation, Bruce.
 What an ego. You just have to insist on talking and showing the world
 how uninformed you are.
The world is perceptive enough to realize it's the other way around, Bruce.
Wilbur Hubbard