In this case, I have no idea when the last time the mast was taken down. I wanted to check everything. I also had issues with my nav lights, anchor and steaming lights were not working. I found a broken wire and replaced everything with LED's. I also took the opportunity to replace all the running rigging, although having the mast down was not a requirement for that. Our boat is also stored on jack stands, our club does not have the room for cradles. There is nothing between our club and Canada except 20+ miles of air and Lake Erie. When the winter storms blow through it's not unusual to see winds topping 50mph, couple that with the frost heave and a mast catching that wind and rocking the boat, well, they fall over sometimes. Never saw a sailboat fall over that had the mast down. There is also a storage issue with power lines We do actually have multiple power lines that divide the club in half. Boats with the masts up can only be stored on one side so smaller boats like ours are encouraged to drop our masts to allow them to go under the power lines to the other side for storage.

In the past, all of our boats used the mast as a ridge pole for the winter covers. Not so any more as we have a custom frame for the shrink wrap.

All that said, there is no "advantage" to taking the mast down every year, it is a total pain in my ass. Pulling and stepping are by far the two worst days of the year for everyone.