[66luders]

Stan you are correct, i did get mixed up . Thank you foor clarifying things for me.
Thank you to everyone for input and ideas. I have thought about this for a while and have decided that steps are what i want. I found a great buy on a used bosuns chair that came with two block pulleys and enough line to go up about 30 feet, about 10 short of the top. I was thinking about buying new rope so that i could use it to reach the top. I used both the jib and spinnaker halyards to pull up the block... but i still felt weary. I do not trust any of the sheeves on my mast. I also really like the idea of being able to get up the mast fast when alone.

So i bit the bullet and decided on mast steps. I feel like stainless would be much stronger than aluminum fasteners but some people have suggested using aluminum rivets so i felt unsure what to do. I read online that monel was a goood choice.