The Mast - revisited, again...

So we've posted about this before.  Last year we stopped in Connecticut on our way home from visiting family in Maine to check out a fellow Mason owners used mast.  The M's decided to swap theirs a few years ago and their used mast is in great shape.  At the time we were seriously considering buying it, see post here but since we hadn't had many opportunities to sail Tango with her in mast furling, we felt we needed to give it a chance and see if we really wanted to swap them out (not an inexpensive endeavor).

We had an in mast furling main on our previous boat and never had an issue.  It was super simple and we really liked it.  However, the system on Tango never seemed to work as well.  Over the last year we've done research, talked with other Mason owners with in mast furling mains, tried every scenario (seems all things need to be just right in order for it to come out/in smoothly) and still have issues on a more often than not basis.  After many discussions and back and forth we've decided that we don't want to take off on our extended cruising with an in mast furling system.  We've chosen to swap over to a traditional rig.  

So we've purchased the mast from the M's, it's been shipped down from CT to MD where the swap and work will be done.  We've got a lot to do in order to transition it over.   Everything on our current mast needs to be removed and placed on the new one, the wiring needs to be modified, the boom will need to be modified and we'll have to install the reef points.  We also bought the mainsail from the M's which we'll use until such time we get our new sail. So a lot of work left to do with regards to the mast but we're definitely looking forward to having them swapped out!