[buchhla]

Thanks, that makes this even easy! I agree, for extended offshore cruising it may make sense to rehoist the kite, but coming from the racnig side, my mind doesn't even think that way!

One other question, having had to fix the forestay on another boat last summer sailing back from hawaii, I want to make sure my refit doesn't ahve similar problems. Since the masthead fitting on my mast (either NG70 or 80, not positive) uses stemball fittings for all the standing rigging, do I need to worry about lateral movement like I would if it a eye fitting/fork/tang type arrangment? I looks like there is some amount of movement designed into this fitting, but is it enough, or is this somethign else I should worry about? I am thinking of going hayne fittings for everything, do they make a stemball fitting I could use for this, or do I need to go with a mechanical swage?

Thanks again...