[Brian Duff]

my concern is not that the base is not made of hard enough material, but rather that the pole butt compression is not transfered from the mast to the deck . If you look at many of those light pole bases, the only contact points are out at the four bolts and not through the middle ( this is to make it easy to adjust them to stand level, they are often fit onto threaded studs with nuts above and below. just be sure the step they sell can bear compression. As to the slight movement that might be realized as the boat moves in a seaway and the rig/hull flexes, just bolt the step down with hard rubber bushings between the step hole and bolt with a large heavy washer on the bolt head that ensures the bolts cant get throught the fastener hole, that would solve things. (think engine mount). A step on that boat only need be 4 -3/8" bolts, where the lamp pole probably has 3/4" fastener holes ( I haven't check what the lamp pole might have , just guessing)

There is no reason to be concerned about the hardness difference from welding the joints, especially if the correct sleeve is fit to reinforce the welded butt joint. I have seen many masts that are just butt welded joints without sleeves, and they didn't fail there ( we have one we repaired two years ago that bent/buckled about 6' down form a plain butt joint on welded 5" alum pipe (if I recall the size ) suprising that the butt joint didn't break, but it didn't.

of course there is the added advantage of a nice taper on those flag poles...