Brand:
Marine Chandlery
Product Code:
MP-407101
Special Offer Price: £222.95
Retail Price: £246.24
You Save: £23.29
- Heavy duty three section twist-lock pole extending from 83" (2.1m) to 169" (4.3m)
- Outer tube 2" diameter (5cm).
- Self latching fittings on both ends.
- Weight 8lbs (3.64kg)
How do you know when it’s time to deploy a whisker pole for downwind sailing? When the jib sheet goes limp and you have to head up to get more boat speed or you have had to sheet in until the jib leech is too close to the main and is denigrating its’ performance. Then it’s time!
However, other factors require consideration. In heavy winds giving near hull speed, deploying a pole will only be advantageous after you are way off the wind like 150º apparent. Then again in very light winds and if your pole is long enough, (see Diagram A) you may find advantage as early as 90º to 100º apparent. There is nothing as helpful as some practice and experimentation.
The same suggestion applies to learning to set the pole easily and properly. An adjustable length pole provides advantages in addition to simplifying its’ storage. The adjustable poles, the twist-lock and line control models, are preferable to the lock-button type which have limited length choices. A longer length will be used for close reaching with the length being shortened more and more as you go from broad reach to downwind. In general the pole should be kept near 90º to the apparent wind just as with spinnaker pole practice (see diagram A).
When trimming the sheet, keep in mind that very significant compressive loads can be exerted on the pole in strong winds. Please understand that you are creating a force vector on the pole. As a matter of fact, you could, on a still day tied up at the dock with the jib up, crank in the sheet with a winch until you had buckled the pole. To get the most lift and best speed out of a poled out jib, trim it until the leech (which is now acting as the luff) begins to curl back just as is done with a spinnaker.
As you head more and more on a downwind course there will be a tendency for the jib clew to lift and even oscillate up and down. A fore-guy will help keep the clew at the right height for best boat speed. This height will vary as dictated by apparent-wind speeds and angles or even wave conditions. On smaller boats, say under about 30 feet, the leeward sheet can be tucked under a bow cleat horn and used as a downhaul. On boats 30 ft. and over you should be using both a topping lift and a fore-guy.
Whisker poles cannot be gybed end-for-end as with spinnaker poles. The procedure is to ease the foreguy, remove the pole from the mast, pass it aft between the mast and what will become the lee shrouds until the forward end can be passed through the fore-triangle and switch the sheet attachment on the forward end of the pole. Then push the pole to weather and reattach to the mast. The sheet trimmer must tend the weather sheet to help control the pole as it is pushed forward else the jib and the pole will be slammed against the head stay. The main should not be gybed until the pole gybe is completed.
When it’s time to dowse the pole it is pretty much a reverse process. Ease the sheet, detach from the mast, pass the pole aft on the lee side and disconnect from the sheet. The helmsman must not head up until the pole is completely disconnected and off the foredeck. The pole should be kept level at all times. To accomplish this there will need to be multiple or adjustable mast attachment fittings (track & cars) on the mast except for small day-sailors with a single jib inventory..jpg)