Hello again, an sorry for putting up a new thread - but I thought I might get a better response this way, because the question at hand might be relevant to other boats as well as mine.
I seem to start getting frustrated with my plans of converting my Joe 17 trailer sailer.
I've been trying to find out the best way of having an easy way of stepping and lowering the mast on every sail. I keep the boat on the trailer, and never leave it in the water after sailing.
My current sailplan has a mast height of 6300mm above deck level. Most probably I will have a hybrid mast with 5000mm of 100mm aluminium tube and a wooden top.
I've been adviced to build a tabernacle from wood. I seem to find it hard to accept the thought that this would be strong and light enough at the same time, considering the sloppy seas I often go to. I'm afraid a strong tabernacle will weigh too much together with the moved (compared to the bermudan rig) mast.
The 6300+ mast weighs perhaps 25kg. I think would be possible to lift it through the deck and step it in a normal JR way every time. But then again there would be a need for temporary stays or some other nuisance in order to keep the mast stable enough when lifting it alone.
Have you come up with solutions to this? Should I just stick with the tabernacle plan and deal with the weight issue?