OY DP! Welcome back, dude!

d parker wrote:
Assuming you are strong enough to lift your mast from near the step is isn't
that hard.

One problem I haven't seen any of the others address is the mast falling
sideways when trying to raise it. Our trailerable boat had a 26' mast
with a rolled-up jib, I could lift it by hand but the tricky part was
making the step up from the bridge deck to the coach roof.

Our boat had a set of side babystays which I rarely used. These were
secrued to loops on the lifeline stanchions so tha they were in line
with the mast step pivot. I think that for boats without this feature, a
loop of line on each side of th emast could serve the same function.

Run a loop from somewhere not too far up the mast, like maybe the
spinnaker pole hoop, to a block on the gunwhale forward of the mast
step, then to another block the same distance aft of the mast step. Put
another identical loop on the other side. Now the mast is free to pivot
up and down but cannot fall side to side. You could use a ratchet block
to help get it up.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King