John, For what's it worth, this is the way I lower my M-17 with CDI furler. First, I do it while boats on the trailer. I leave the shrouds attached to the chainplates. I remove the sail, detach the furler shackle at bow plate, attach 1/4 " line to shackle, run it through small block attached to bow plate and then astern to port winch, take several wraps around winch leaving some 10-12 feet on loose end. Then stradling cockpit and standing on seats (thwarts?) and holding line in left hand, I start lowering the mast on to right shoulder, moving astern on seats, slipping the line on winch until mast is firmly on shoulder and under control. By this time mast is at low enough angle that winch is of little or no help. The winch setup is only used as a brake. I then step off seats into cockpit and lower mast into cradle. I have one advantage and that is I am tall and mast is at not at overly acute angle once it reaches my shoulder. The downside is that I'm not particluarly strong or kinetic and I only do this when solo which is usually the case. When I have help the procedure is identical except the aide-de-camp contols the winch line.
For what it's worth, good luck Bill K M-17 (#55) _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
