474 de rigging roblem

Need a bit more info. How does your sail hook to the mast top. Do you have a ring on the halyard and
hook on the mast head?

it has a semi circle with a pin through it to go through a ring in the sail and hoist it. i assume that the ring clicks in on top.

If it has the conventional ring on the halyard and hook on the mast you need to rotate the mast in the direction that the hook will catch the ring while raising. To lower you raise the sail above the hook and
then rotate the mast in the opposite direction so the ring misses the hook and comes down. If you have
a mast rotator you need to loosen it so you can rotate the mast to the stops. Having the boat into pointed
into the wind makes this all go a lot easier. If your sail is not traveling free in the mast track that can also
hinder raising it above the hook in order to lower it.

okay thanks

Here is a pic of a conventional mast hook.

The freestyle has a halyard ring the fits over the top of a hook at the top of the mast. When dropping the main apply downward pressure on the halyard and simultaneously rotate the mast so the the base is pointing at the starboard hull...realease halyard pressure and roatate the mast back to a centered position

Yeah, its fiddly the first couple of times you do it. I actually tie the end of my halyard to the starboard side of the ring so I have the option to pull it out of the way of the hook. One word of warning if you do that, you have to tighten and secure the halyard while sailing or it will flop around, get caught on battens and be generally annoying.