Recess, I stand correcte on the "gin pole". I guese it doesn't have to be a shore mounted pole. I googled gin pole and found this site for making one. This might help you if you have to raise your mast by yourself. Dave
http://aim.search.aol.com/aol/image...imgHeight=460&imgSize=32313&imgTitle=gin+pole
I'm using this Gin Pole set up with the exception of the boat winch and the baby stay attachment on the mast with the main halyard. In place of the boat winch, I'm using my boom vang which is made up with an extra long rope.
I had used that mast attachment pictured on that link for the temporary stays (baby stays) about two years ago and I wasn't too happy with it, so I adopted a similar attachment that my friend Wayne has been using on his mast for years.
Having to mess with the Main Halyard made the mast raising procedure too slow and involving. I found that a piece of wood that is shaped like a mast crutch, which you could clamp to your mast, will serve the same function, which is the prevention of the mast going over sideways as you're raising or lowering it.
The wooden mast attachment that I made can be very simple to fit snug on the mast with a long bolt and wing nut to make it tighter. The one I made has a hinge with two eye bolts and a fancy tightening mechanism that I Mickey Moused myself, but it really doesn't have to be that elaborate. Wayne has one with a long threaded bolt with a knob to tighten it to the mast. You guys who own O'Day 25s and 26s could get better mast stability with this mast bracket and use it in conjunction with present system of raising the mast from the bow. All that would be needed is this bracket for your mast and the baby stays that will attach to the triangular plates and the eye bolts on this attachment.
Baby stays are nothing more than 1/4" braid rope with dog leash snaps on both ends. You could make them out of wire stays but it's not necessary. The same with the pivot bridles. All this stuff can be purchased at Lowe's or your local hardware store.
To get a firm understanding of why pivot brides are needed in conjunction with the baby stays on the O'Day sailboats, you need to look at the MacGregor sailboat decks. Their decks are flat, and the mast tabernacle is the same height as the attachment points for the temporary stays. Consequently, all that is needed is the baby stays which attach to the mast somewhere within reaching distance to a couple of tangs bolted to the mast.
The mast Tabernacle on the O'Days is sitting on top of the cabin roof about a foot or so higher than the side decks where the chain plates are located and because of this, the pivot bridles with the rings are needed for the baby stays to work. While it is true that the top edges of the O'Day cabin are at the same height as the mast tabernacle, the width of the cabin is too narrow to support the mast. The temporary stays need to be as wide as possible for the temporary stays to do their job which is to keep the mast from going over sideways. All your regular stays are connected to the chain plates except your fore stay and they will stay slack until the mast is all the way in the up position. This is important to remember. Two other important things to remember is; the boat needs to be level and the wind needs to be coming from the stern if you're raising the mast from the stern.
With all this said, it's possible to raise a mast on these boats with out baby stays and pivot bridles, but if you have a roller furler attached to your mast, I strongly recommend the bridles and stays particularly if you'll be doing this by yourself and a lot of guys do.
In essence, the main function of the pivot bridles is to provide the pivot point for the temporary stays and when the pivot bridles are stretch out, the rings in the center of these bridles come even with the pivot point of the mast tabernacle pin. A picture is worth a thousand words so I've provided some pics that will illustrate the points I have made. I hope that I was able to be of some help here.
Joe