J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment spinnaker rigging

I'm thinking about changing the topping lift and foreguy on Rhapsody. We were doing the "J World" J/24 method on raising the pole. The topping lift is preset on the mast ring, bowman picks up the pole by the bridal, holds it by ring on mast, takes topping lift off mast ring and clips to bridal. The pole is pushed forward and is magically at the proper height without and need for the crew to do anything on the aft cabin. Sometimes we need more flexibility.

I'd like to hear some feedback from those who have put cleats on the mast (like how far down), double ended the topping lift & foreguy, and also run the leads aft for when a winch is needed to raise the pole.

• Double ended lead eye splice to snap shackle for topping lift, long enough to stow pole on deck with topping lift attached, but run back to mast along the pole for storage.
• exists mast to cam cleat on mast about 9" below topping lift exit plate and slightly offset so if desired, the cam cleat can be bypassed and use the aft cabin top cam cleats
• double ended lead feeds back on cabin top through topping lift fairleads and cam cleat, loops back through foreguy cam cleat and fair leads
• snap shackle tied on bitter end to connect to foreguy bridle on pole.

How does this sound?