[benz]

I know that keel-stepping a mast is more reliable than deck-stepping--it kind of makes sense, but has anyone worked out how much weaker a tabernacle-stepped mast would be? One of those tabernacles that go up two or three feet and are firmly bolted through the cabin to a compression post. It seems that with a beefed-up hinge point on the mast and a properly-sized locking pin below, this might be almost as reliable as a keel-stepper?
This is not something in my immediate future--just an academic puzzle for me on a rainy day.

Incidentally--not a wooden tabernacle, but welded steel or aluminum--kind of like those flagpole tabernacles you see now and again.