Whisker pole question (size, mounting)

[NATBF]

Mast work results in a whisker pole question that SSS folks are uniquely qualified to answer. I would love your advice:

1. I have an Ericson 34, 35ft LOA. The rigger, and some others, have suggested I get a Forespar Line Control 13-24 pole.. which weighs 40 lbs.

This is not crazy, in the sense that Forespar recommends 13-24 for a 35' boat with a genoa in "heavy air" (vs a 10-18, 17-lb pole for light use.). The person who runs the local L-36 website (with those great current plots!) discusses this and suggests smaller than a 12-22 (28 lb) pole is dangerous, and 13-24 might be best, but that person seems to race with crew.

--> Singlehanding, is the 13-24 going to be so heavy / unwieldy that I'll just never use it? More specifically, what do you do?

2. Pole storage: on the mast or on the stanchions?
On the mast costs more, but... maybe is worth it for singlehanding? (at least if the pole is 40lb)
Issue: I think on-mast mounting means jaws must face down at sheet/guy, making it hard to release (per L-36 site). L-36 says even forespar will admit on the phone you want the jaws facing up so the sheet will pop out easily when desired.

--> Again, what do you do / suggest?

Many thanks!

PS: Boat: Ericson 34, with 90% and 135% jibs. May get a drifter sometime, but otherwise those are my foresails. Singlehanding, old enough that I hardly qualify as super-athletic in terms of foredeck work (affecting my excitement about a 40lb pole). Would use this offshore, not in the bay.

 

[tmsowerby]

Lots of things to address!

Assuming you are looking to pole out a jib/genoa rather than for use with a symmetrical spinnaker, bear in mind that there are restrictions on the length of poles. From the SSS LongPac NOR:

"One or more whisker poles may be used to pole out headsail(s). The length of the whisker poles shall not exceed the luff perpendicular (LP) of the largest rated headsail and may not be used for setting a spinnaker."

Whisker poles can be fixed length or telescoping. Telescoping poles are more expensive, and heavier. They are also much less able to stand up to the high compressive pressure that they are subject too when the wind blows a the seas build. Having a pole pretzel under load creates is dangerous.

Spinnaker poles can be used to pole out genoas as well as spinnakers, but they are limited to the J-length of the boat and are fixed length. This means that for a sail plan to be effective wing on wing, the genoa needs to be sized and designed with the length of the pole and the height of the mast car in mind.

White Rose has a 120% high clew genoa and a J-length spinnaker pole . This is a powerful combo. In moderately big seas, TWS 18-20 knots, dead down wind, wing on wing, she'll maintain hull speed and surf down waves hitting 11 - 12 knots under full sail and in control. She can sail as high as 135 AWA poled out. The autopilot copes fine with this,

I personally don't see the need for a long whisker pole. If the wind's moderate or light, I'm flying the spinnaker. If it's blowing hard, I'm looking at reducing sail. (The exception might be if considering poling out twins (genoas port and starboard) with two poles when going DDW in Tradewinds.

For offshore use, you'll want to secure the pole with a foreguy/downhaul, afterguy and topping lift. You need to keep that sucker under control at all times. Practice deploying the pole. I worked out a system so that with one trip to the foredeck I could attach all the control lines and the sheet, position the outboard tip of the pole on the pulpit with the inboard end on the mast car at the perfect height from the deck, then then return to the cockpit to deploy the pole and then the sail.

A 40 lb aluminum pole is a lot to handle on a heaving foredeck for a klutzy 62 year old on a 42 ft yacht. I went for a carbon pole - much stronger and easier to control. No question ... carbon is $$$ but for me it was a necessity.

White Rose has her spinnaker pole stowed on the mast. The main advantage of this is that the pole is already in the mast car when it's time to deploy. I could clearly see losing the pole over the side if I had to move it from the deck to secure it to the mast. That said, it's a good idea to have the option stow the pole on deck as well.

I had bad luck with a Forespar mast car. The jaws that hold the car on the mast track bent, the pole got free and punched a hole in the mainsail. Forespar refused to replace it. My rigger and I maintain that this shouldn't have happened with a correctly engineered car. I won't be buying Forespar products again. Consider Selden, Forte or other vendors.

You definitely want to have this sail plan if you're going offshore and you want it set up so that you can deploy it safely and quickly. There's nothing worse than sailing DDW with the genoa flapping ineffectually or having to head up to and lose VMC.

Racing on the Bay with a pole as described in L-36 is very different from using a pole offshore. Smaller boats with smaller sails can edeploy light weight poles without guys and topping lifts on short down wind legs in relatively sheltered conditions. This is not the case offshore or inshore in a bigger yacht (>32 feet LOA) when single-handed.

TS