I had previously talked about the painless way to raise the mast on the 216 but actually told how to lower the mast...with no pictures. This post assumes you have successfully raised your mast once, adjusted your shroud turnbuckles, and locked the turnbuckles in with hitch pins, cotter rings, or whatever so you don't have to adjust them each time. If you use hitch pins, tape them with rigging tape like I have done. I leave my furler on the boat so I only have to attach the job to the top of the furler. I cleat the furler so it won't bounce around as much although it still bounces around while traveling. I am experimenting with some kind of padding I can stick to the hull so I don't wear a groove in the hull with the furler. I use Ball Lock Quick Release pins for my furler and shrouds instead of Clevis pins as it is much faster. To raise the mast: 1. Gather all the lines/shrouds together at the base of the mast and bungee to the mast. This way, nothing will hang up while raising/lowering the mast. Likewise, make sure the jib if furled and bungeed AND bungee the jib sheets to the jib. 2. Attach the mast to the mast step using the sternmost holes (as per Hunter). It helps to keep the jib off the spreaders and the shrouds at this point so the weight of the jib does not twist the mast making it hard to get the pin inserted. I usually have the crew simply hold the jib up. 3. Raise the mast. If you are by yourself, bungee the jib to the mast and lift away while grunting loudly and insert the mast pin. Otherwise, clip your handy, dandy mast raising/lowering line to the jib and run it to the front of the tow vehicle so the crew can pull the mast up. Said handy, dandy line is simply a length of spare line with a cheapo Ace Hardware clip. See Pic. Have crew pull the mast up and insert the mast pin then un-bungee the lines/shrouds. Note: I drilled a hole in my mast pin and use a hitch pin so the mast pin does not work out of the eye brackets. 4. Attach the shrouds: To do this, you have to remove the mast pin and lean the mast back a little so you get some slack in the shrouds. The pic shows the rakish Ranger Paul tilting the mast back. If you are by yourself, tie off the jib to the fore mast support so the jib holds the mast up...but tilted back. 5. Raise the mast back up and insert the mast wedge if possible. (My tapered hand made wooden wedge will slip part way down.) 6. Attach the jib: Preload the furler 3-4 turns counter clockwise. Using a short piece of line with loops tied in each end, attach one of the loops to the lower part of the jib (a foot of so up) using a Prussic knot. (Use your knot book or try Google to learn how to tie a Prussic knot.) Now put your foot in the other loop and step down to tension the jib. Attach jib to furler. 7. Finish inserting the mast wedge if needed.