What projects do you wish you had done when your mast was down?

[Ron Hill]

sheh : You might consider a TV antenna and that cable.  I also would install a lightening "positive ion dissipater".

When my mast was down beside the replacement wiring I also ran another leader - Don't know what else I might run in the future, but there is a leader in there - just in case!!

A few thoughts

[shehant]

Thank you all! These are all really excellent suggestions. 

Looks like I'll be replacing the stem fitting too, as I just noticed this crack when I took the sails off this weekend.  Any recommendation on sourcing? Know there's an upgraded one on Catalina Direct - any other recommendations though?

[Jon W]

For the spinnaker crane get a longer one than what's up there. I've heard of several people having troubles because it's too short.

Some items I haven't seen mentioned yet you may want to consider -

add courtesy flag lines, pulleys, and snap shackles on both spreaders.
LED spreader lights (I have Lunasea LLB472W-21-10 low power and it's like daylight at night).
if your mast is painted repair the paint and corrosion at the fittings.
add extra rivets to the existing conduit inside the mast.
fittings for Lazy Jacks.
check/replace mast boot.
since your replacing the stemhead fitting, think about a larger bow roller for the new style anchors.

[WBev]

As to the stemhead fitting and the longer anchor roller, I purchased from Garhauer as part of the commissioning upon purchase in 2018.  The stemhead fitting did seem to change the forestay tension, in that the forestay turnbuckle needed tightening.  I did have the marina do the stemhead fitting, and was so smitten by the "new" boat, I didn't realize how loose the forestay had become. 

The crack you show is a fairly common problem. I sent the cracked fitting to Garhauer so they made the new, stronger one as an exact match.  Well, not entirely true as the pressure of the stay sets it more precisely as Guido (RIP) explained. 

Garhauer makes some great stuff.  CD, I believe, is not using their stemhead fittings of late. 

[LogoFreak]

Thank you all! These are all really excellent suggestions. 

Looks like I'll be replacing the stem fitting too, as I just noticed this crack when I took the sails off this weekend.  Any recommendation on sourcing? Know there's an upgraded one on Catalina Direct - any other recommendations though?

Is yours a tall rig?