Jibing with a whisker pole, do you disconnect?

[Andy Howard]

I attach my Whisker pole to the ring mounted on an adjustable track on my mast. I have never unhooked it while jibing. I was looking at the instructions on the forespar site recently and they suggest "Do not attempt to jibe a whisker pole".I can see that if it jammed in the ring it could be a mess, so I'm wondering have I just been very lucky, or is this a case of "over warn" to avoid lawsuits on Forespars part.I'd like to know if you, jibe with your wiskerpole still set, and do you set it hook up or hook down at the mast ring.

 

[charlie]

by all means

i would most definetly detach my pole when jibing. usully if something can go wrong it will. as far as hook up or down, down might be easier to disconnect.

 

[Jim Quibell]

Disconnect whisker pole at the mast!!!

We use the Forespar 3 section whisker pole which expands to 17 feet. When coming through a gybe we always disconnect at the mast, pull the sail across, and reconnect. Granted, we couldn't do it unless we did disconnect because of the size of our foresail, but it's not worth messing up a pole that costs over $ 500 here in Canada.Happy Thanksgiving to all.Cheers,Jim Quibell - G-26 - Sam's Closin'time - BHYC

 

[Ed Allen]

interesting

when i had a little short wisker pole we used to leave it up, but when we got a real wisker pole it wont fit thru the froward triangle. a lot of wisker poles that are telecopic are designed to work with the large in on the mast. so you should not swap ends to jibe either.