mast raising

[MasonSmith]

I've bought my second Nimble 24, this one from 1990, with centerboard and holding tank. I take it that this is NOT the Tropical version and I hope it will sail to windward better than the first one. I want to raise the mast with a gin-pole and have built one, but the first attempt went poorly because the mast was free to rotate too much, putting other than compression load on the spruce pole. Am switching to steel pole but here's my question to the forum: The half-inch mast-pins go through three-quarter-inch sleeves in the mast. The question is, is this loose fit necessary for mast rake adjustment? Is that the purpose of the looseness? Would it be inadvisable to insert a half-inch sleeve (or half-inch ID bushings) in the mast where the mast pivots in raising and lowering? That would take away half of the fore and aft adjustability of the mast, and perhaps be unsatisfactory for sailing the boat as a sloop, with the mast raked further aft than you'd want it as a yawl. I don't plan to sail Zelie as a sloop. I would very much like to have the pivot pin fit tightly enough to keep the gin-pole nearly in the centerline vertical plane through its arc.

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Baby stays.  What you want are baby stays, wires or lines or chains that will prevent the mast from yawing off to one side as you raise it.  Do not rely on that pin and the holes it goes through. 

Don't ask me how I know this.   

[Frank B.]

Baby stays.  What you want are baby stays, wires or lines or chains that will prevent the mast from yawing off to one side as you raise it.  Do not rely on that pin and the holes it goes through. 

Don't ask me how I know this. 

Yes baby stays.  Best if you can create a yoke with chain to two points (stanchion bases?) on each side and when pulled tight end up with one of the links exactly aligned with the pivot point of your mast tabernacle. Imagine a line through the pivot and extending to those links both sides.  I found this point by putting a dowel through there to touch the link. From there run a line up to the mast part way up.  I installed a bail for that attachment and for the connection of the pole winch line.  By doing that your baby stays will always be exactly aligned with your mast as it goes up or down.  And I do not have to ask Noemi how she knows this, I suspect she discovered their necessity as I did with a minor catastrophe involved.You cannot view this attachment.

[Spot]

+1 for the baby stays!
The $tingy Sailor website has good mast stepping ideas, I built a mast crutch from his design:

https://stingysailor.com/2019/08/24/how-to-step-a-mast-single-handed-with-or-without-using-the-boom-as-a-gin-pole-2/