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E38 whisker pole please!

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Hello All,
I would like a whisker pole for my '83 E38. I do not race so it doesn't have to be anything real fancy. Fixed or retractable, either is fine. I have a nice large padeye on the mast to hook it to. I have looked at the Forespar product but came away more confused due to the multiple offerings and ends available. Easier to ask those in the "know" what they know....

Also my boat came with a spinnaker pole, at least I think its a spinnaker pole. It has the spring loaded clips on each end, one has a control cable to allow you to remotely open it from the other end and it locks open with a trigger device on the inside of the jaw so it would close automatically if you drop it over a line. There is another long cable/wire that leads from the remotely controlled end to the other end and this then has a bungee cord that enters through a block in the pole. The result is the cable is tensioned but allowed to extend out and away from the pole as needed. Maybe this things a whisker pole? I assumed that the cable/wire was there to support it with the spinnaker topping lift? I don't know exactly how all this works so clue me in please. Oh yeah, this pole is about 16ft long made of aluminum.

I've done the search but that didn't get specific enough. Thanks, RT
 

Chris Miller

Sustaining Member
poles...

we have one of the line control extending poles. It's pretty slick, not perfect, but it's fine. Be aware that it weights a TON. That carbon/aluminum pole looks pretty sweet, but I don't think I could justify the cost for the 3 times/year we use it. We usually just set a preventer on the main with the soft vang and don't mess with the pole. Only on long wing on wing trips do we bother with the pole. I would also think that your spin pole would work just fine...
I think Ted was working on custom carbon poles, maybe he can hook you up and you could use your old ends?
just thoughts.
Chris
 

Mike Thomas

Member II
whisker pole please!

Rob,

The diameter of the pole should tell you if it's a spin pole or whisker pole. A spin pole should be larger in dia. (3-4 inches). A whisker pole can usually be lighter and most of the time does not need a topping lift or halyard to be used. Chris is correct that a spin pole will work but you normally use a whisker in very light winds and the added weight of a spin pole can be a pain in the butt. Most folks don't use a whisker too often. I had on old Sunfish sail pole lying around and converted that by adding small 1.5" whisker pole ends to it (that may be too small for you). It works great. For the most part anything that holds the jib out will work. When I was a kid sailing my beat up 24ft we used the boat hook, scrub brush or clam rake as a whisker.

Mike T
76 E-29
 

Seth

Sustaining Partner
It's a spinn pole

The pole you have is a standard spinaker pole. The length is an exact match of your J dimension which is the maximum allowed and is the usual set up.

The wire with the bungee retractor is for the topping lift-the lift attaches to the ring at the end of that wire, and the bungee pulls the wire back down to the pole for when you are taking it down, and so that it stays captive while sailing upwind with everything rigged.

You can defintely use this as a whisker pole, since a whisker should have a topping lift and foreguy attached for maximum control and adjustment.

Purpose built whisker poles are a bit lighter to be sure, and as a result not quite as strong, but for coastal cruising they are easer to use, and can be extendable for easy storage...

Enjoy!

S@
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
Our E-38 came with Forespar's LC-12-22 line control wisker pole. It worked just fine with our 130 Genny, but might be a bit on the short side for a 150. It had spring loaded jaws on each end, and was, and Chris notes above, quite heavy. I never used it without a topping lift, fore guy, and after guy to control it. All of which made it enough trouble to rig that we didn't tend to use it all that often unless we had a LONG offwind leg. It was probably easier to just rig the cruising chute than pole out the Genny.

Of course if we were going dead downwind (and were too lazy to tack downwind to speed things up) the poled out Genny was probably a bit faster than the cruising chute.

I would suggest you make do with your spinaker pole as a wisker pole until you know how much you are really going to pole out your Genny. (List on our pole is now almost $900!)
 
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