Ahh
Hi again,
I see. It is possible that the mast is the right size, and was simply mistuned, probably very undertuned. You'll find out when you take it out again; if it no longer pumps, that was the problem. If it does, however, there's something amiss. See, modern sticks are almost always designed to sail as sloops. This is even true for cutters. The idea is that the highest loads will invariably be at the masthead, so the mast is designed to take those loads, without the support of a forestay.
If your mast really needs a forestay, then not having it set up at all times becomes risky. If pumping is still a problem, and maybe even if it isn't, it were a good idea to calculate the moments of inertia that your boat requires, and compare them with the properties of the current mast. It is possible that the stick has always been too light, which is to say too flexy, and with too small a factor of safety.
As for being able to shake it by hand, this is easily doable even with too stiff masts. Run the numbers.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss
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