When I had boats under 30 ft, I had a deck step or tabernacle mast step on
most of them. They are easy to control if your rigging is set up to maintain
even tension during the whole operation.

The best system that dealt with shourd tension is shown in Bruce Bingham's
Sketch Book. He deals with this by establishing a pivet point in the shouds
at a height equal to the pivet point of the mast. (you have to see a picture
to see how Bruce does this
http://www.hctc.com/~esteve/INGRID%2...s/tabern~1.zip ).


--
My experience and opinion, FWIW
--
Steve
s/v Good Intentions