[VIEXILE]

Opinions are like sphincters . . . anyway, forestay lets go on keel stepped, it might remain standing. If it kicks out of the keel shoe, you have over 6'' of mast waving around belowdecks, possibly driving holes in the boat. Used to be a big concern for me, with a deck stepped mast. It seems like I ascertained the loss in strength/utility when comparing the deck stepped to keel stepped was quite marginal - only about 10%. This was loose-mounted simply on a shoe. Add a through-bolted tabernacle mechanically attached to your compression post (like the retrofit the guy that still maintains the Westsail website custom builds) and I''ll bet the differences are negligible.