First, a big shout out to Dave and his gang. I ordered a Selden telescoping spinnaker pole form the Store last Friday and already received it yesterday. That's amazing turnaround for an item that shows to be "back ordered"!! I certainly have plenty of time to admire it before putting the boat in the water when the ice is finally out .... probably in April!
I agonized over the size to get before finally deciding to save money and get the smallest length. I'm expecting this to be a well-used piece of equipment. As advertised, the telescoping whisker pole lengths match the width of my head sails very nicely, so I should get much better reaching performance when short-handed or solo sailing.
The design length of the pole is intended to be used for a spinnaker pole. I'm pretty excited about this dual-purpose equipment. I don't want to carry separate poles. I guess the drawback is that it is a relatively heavy pole since it is made to be a spinnaker pole that has a telescoping feature. The pole weighs 13 pounds and is 2-3/8" diameter for the outer section. It has pin stops to set for storage length, spinnaker, and two whisker pole positions. It feels like a robust device, so I'm pretty sure it will last. The next larger size could have been useful if I wanted to go with bigger sails, but the weight increase to 22 pounds is what swayed me to the shorter pole in the end. With the topping lift, though, I'm not sure that the weight will be that important.
So, now we are ready to start training our crew for spinnaker sailing!
I agonized over the size to get before finally deciding to save money and get the smallest length. I'm expecting this to be a well-used piece of equipment. As advertised, the telescoping whisker pole lengths match the width of my head sails very nicely, so I should get much better reaching performance when short-handed or solo sailing.
The design length of the pole is intended to be used for a spinnaker pole. I'm pretty excited about this dual-purpose equipment. I don't want to carry separate poles. I guess the drawback is that it is a relatively heavy pole since it is made to be a spinnaker pole that has a telescoping feature. The pole weighs 13 pounds and is 2-3/8" diameter for the outer section. It has pin stops to set for storage length, spinnaker, and two whisker pole positions. It feels like a robust device, so I'm pretty sure it will last. The next larger size could have been useful if I wanted to go with bigger sails, but the weight increase to 22 pounds is what swayed me to the shorter pole in the end. With the topping lift, though, I'm not sure that the weight will be that important.
So, now we are ready to start training our crew for spinnaker sailing!
Enjoy.