[alberg30] Whisker pole use (was: length)

[George Dinwiddie]

From: George Dinwiddie <gdinwiddie at min.net>

Sanders,

One thing to consider about whisker poles:  When the air is light,
there is very little pressure on the sail.  Therefore, any chop
tends to make the sail bounce up and down.  I found that this 
reduced the usefulness of the sail and, periodically, caused the
whisker pole to jump off the genoa sheet.

Ultimately, I gave up using the whisker pole and don't even
carry it on the boat anymore.  I use the spinnaker pole, instead,
and rig it with uphaul and downhaul just like I would for the
spinnaker.  While the spinnaker pole is shorter and doesn't
give the same projection, the stability more than makes up
for it in terms of wind catching ability.  The more relaxed
sailing is an added benefit.

I'm not saying don't use a whisker pole, but you might give
some thought as to how you can stabilize it.  If anyone knows
how this problem can be easily solved, I'd like to hear it,
too.

 - George


SandersM at aol.com wrote:
> 
> 
> Quick question:  Would a 16 foot whisker pole be long enough to pole out a
> 150 genoa on an A30 running downwind?

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