Whisker Pole - how big?

[aardvarkash10 1,056]

We are ditching the spinnakers - relegated to Garage duties for the forseeable.

We have an overlapping furling genoa, and want to be able to pole it out for downwinders.  The existing spinnaker pole is almost the same length as the foot of the fully unfurled genoa, but it looks ENORMOUS and is typically unwieldy.

What advice is there from the brains trust on workable, practical, easily-handled altenratives to the carbon fibre jousting pole we have?

[Steve 40]

I think normally the pole is the same as J.  And there is no penalty on PHRF  at or below J x 1.1.

Sounds like yours is longer than J.

Seems that if you're using a topper and the pole is still shorter than the foot of the genoa, it shouldn't be too difficult to manage.  Specially if its carbon. And at that length you'll certainly achieve plenty of projection. But if you want a shorter one there's certainly a market for your pole as it stands.

 

[Jon 391]

As Steve says above, but another way is rather than running the sheet through the pole use a outhaul line through the pole and clip to  clew of the genoa 

This way you can sheet it aft and haul it out, this will also give you the chance to experiment with the perfect length if you decide to make a dedicated whisker pole or shorten what you have. Keep an eye out on trademe also, sometimes it’s out there

[Black Panther 1,674]

I used to use a lazy sheet for control.

[Jono G 43]

I agree with the leaned gentlemen above. With an overlapper it is far simpler to use a lazy sheet though either an aft spinnaker turning block, or possibly BMax on a wider boat - possibly not a Spencer 10m. That way the sheet is triangulating nicely and all of a sudden your pole is a perfect length. Don't cut it as one day the spinnaker will be used.

If just using a blade a whisker pole on the genoa sheets is fine but a lazy sheet is still better.

 

You can get cheap tubes from Kilwell and use your current end fittings if you want another project.

[aardvarkash10 1,056]

1 hour ago, Jono G said:

I agree with the leaned gentlemen above. With an overlapper it is far simpler to use a lazy sheet though either an aft spinnaker turning block, or possibly BMax on a wider boat - possibly not a Spencer 10m. That way the sheet is triangulating nicely and all of a sudden your pole is a perfect length. Don't cut it as one day the spinnaker will be used.

If just using a blade a whisker pole on the genoa sheets is fine but a lazy sheet is still better.

 

You can get cheap tubes from Kilwell and use your current end fittings if you want another project.

Thanks for that advice - yeah, I had no plans to modify the existing pole (its a very nice carbon fibre one) and I'm more likely to build a new one.  The idea of using the spinnaker block makes sense to me now having read both descriptions.  We'll give that a go.

When the wind drops....

[aardvarkash10 1,056]

The lazy sheet via spinnaker blocks works great.  Thanks everyone.