3. I pull the pin holding the mast up and with my hand roughly where it was for the raising, SLOWLY and under  control lower the mast. I find it helps to again take that step aft while lowering the mast as it gives you more  control. 4. Once the mast is lowered into the boom gallows I dress the halyard to the sailcover with bungees and put one  around the upper end of the mast to hold it securely to the boom gallows so it will not be tempted to bounce  around while trailering. 5. I also put a bungee cord around the halyards, shrouds, and forestay as close to the lower mast as possible to hold  them in position, and one last one goes from the forestay to bow where the the forestay is connected while sailing.  This last one stops the forestay from banging around and scratching things. I can raise the mast in about 5 minutes or less and lower it in about 10 or less. I should mention that because I am forgetful I have a mantra I go through when I'm launching or recovering the boat. To  launch just before backing down the ramp I go Centerboard up, rudder up, motor up. I repeat it again as a last thing just before putting her into her trailer. Of course checking each item as I say it. The last thing I do before driving off is to make sure the centerboard is lowered and resting on the trailer. This prevents  chafing of the centerboard lanyard. This step explains why I have the centerboard up statement in the mantra because if  you don't have it raised the boat will not come off the trailer when launching. ecause I sail solo most of the time, I had to learn to raise my sail solo. I have found that one of the best thing to help is  to use McLube on the sail track. The stuff is a lubricant made especially for sail boat use. It is not supposed to stain  the sail, but I take precautions anyway. It is remarkable how much it will ease the raising and especially lowering of the  sail. B  The next thing I have done is to get a tiller tamer and use it. I use the one from Canada as it uses a quick acting latch or  cam mechanism. One change I have made to this system is to use a bungee cord instead of the line that is recommended.  This means that once I have the boat on course and have set the tiller tamer to keep it there I can just bump the tiller if  the boat wanders off a little. The bungee cord will of course bring the rudder back to where I had it set. When I go out I spend some time as I head out of the marina to find the wind, sometimes even stopping to cancel out the  apparent wind, then put the boat on a heading that will allow the sail to be slightly to port as it raises, and set the tiller  tamer to keep it there. I put the boom in the port notch on the boom galley to give me more room to starboard. I then move to the starboard side and make sure the boat is staying where I want it. Sometimes I have to readjust the  rudder when I make the shift to starboard because of the ballast shift. When I am ready I remove the last one or two sail ties and I then sit in about the middle of the starboard seat. From here  I can easily reach the tiller if it needs a "bump" to keep the boat where I want it, but yet work with both halyards. I at this  time make sure the main sheet is free to run out. When I go to raise the sail I take both halyards in my hand and pull them together. I then pull once or twice on the peak  halyard alone then both, then the peak continuing in this fashion until the throat halyard stops. I then make sure the  peak halyard's cam is locked and let go of it, put both hands on the throat halyard and give a strong pull on it. This raises  the throat up the final 3 inches or so until the eyesplice is trying to go through the block. I then return to the peak halyard  and raise it as high as it needs to go. In between the times of hauling on the halyards I make sure the mainsheet is running free, and make adjusting "bumps"  as necessary to keep the heading I want. Once I have the sail raised I quickly shut down the motor and release the tiller tamer. Here is one place where the quick  action of the cam comes in handy. With the rudder and sheet released the boat is "hove to" and will just sit there which  gives me time to raise the motor and neaten up the cockpit. I after all have two sets of halyards piled up on the cockpit  floor. I have two canvas buckets which I hang on the cleats that are just below the halyard cams. I start with the bitter end of  the halyard and just feed the line into it's bag. I do not try to make it neat just feed it in. If you have to lower sail in a  hurry or when you are done sailing and you are lowering the sail the lines will feed out without any jams. It's a trick I  learned from a firefighter. That is the way they make up their rescue lines. 57 Raising the Sail(Sun Cat) 