*Not* including a tabernacle - that is just something I have been considering, and this guy does really good work. His welds are really nice, and I am getting exactly what I design.

Though I do like the SS Ballinger (?) hinged mast step, I think a tabernacle is a better way to go for me. Ideally, I would like to be able to lower the mast by myself as easily as possible, if/when need be. It looks like to me that a tabernacle offers some better options than just a hinged base. It can be designed so that the spar can clear the cabintop step, for instance, as well as giving me stronger connection to the deck due to having a larger base (that I design that way).

So that means I have to come up with a different mast base solution, especially considering that I am not screwing/bolting thru-deck into a wooden beam any longer. Ideally, I want to not directly mechanically (or therefore electrically) bind the mast to the aluminum support inside. Cuts down on corrosion, and helps keep lightning out of the inside of the boat*, that way.

And I don't really have to design a tabernacle, really - I just have to adapt an age-old design to this particular boat. Right now, I am considering through-bolting it to the aforementioned 'ribs' on either side of the aluminum mast support.

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An ebbdendum (if I can coin a phrase ) to the above: there is a lot of uncertainty about lightning, except for three things that I can see:

1) It can cause a lot of property (and personal) damage.
2) It is not at all predictable.
3) That it *does* like to go to ground along the most direct path, is about the only thing scientists seem to know for sure.

The most direct route OFF of the boat from the masthead (the most likely place to take a strike) is: the backstay.

Backstays make no turns on the way down, and terminate closer to 'earth' than the forestay. On our boats, they also have the added bonus of having the most physical separation from belowdecks. OK, only by a little bit, but that might be enough. So it seems to me that they are the best way to attempt to route lightning, or at least to give it a good, easy path to ground. I have some ideas about that, for down the road...

Might not be much of a concern for a lot of you, but lightning here is fairly frequent, year-round, and darn near a plague in summer. There's that, and a couple too-close experiences with it, so I am keeping it in mind as I do all this.