After a half-dozen workers labored for almost two days, Aegir-Ran’s mast was finally unstepped.
The problem was the previous owner has fiberglassed the base of the mast, presumably to block water (which make no sense because the mast is open at the top). While some people advised that we cut off an inch from the bottom of the mast to free is, we instead removed the bracket for the boom vang, moved the Spartite plug up the mast and away from the deck, so enough room was created between the mast and the deck so the mast could be rocked back and forth to free it.
It is noteworthy that the initial effort to remove the mast put so much pressure on the crane that one of the cables broke (and had to be held in place by a Cat tractor while the mast was removed.