What size diameter whisker pole for a h23?

[C Jones]

My Marina has Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon races year round. I signed up and raced single handed last night. Wednesday night is the serious night and Sunday is the fun day. Good for me we had about 6-8 knot winds. I beat a 2 Cat22's and 1 Beneteau First 23.5. A J22 and a Hunter 22 beat me until they did all the ratings stuff. The Hunter 22 and I ran about the same speed but I started 200 yards behind him due to my having to get farther to wind than him at the start. He outpointed me by 10 deg. I was within 50 yards of him at the finish. Sailing single handed and not using a spinnacker gave us a tie for 2nd place and very close behind the J22. I used a borrowed whisker pole on my 135 Genoa and held my ground on the smaller boats with spinnackers downwind. Fun stuff, just wanted to share it with you. My question is can I get by with the Forespar 1" X 8' Whisker pole on my h23 with a 135 Genoa with under 12 knot winds? Thanks,Charles

 

[Alan]

A 1" pole is a little on the light side but in light to moderate air it shouldn't be a problem. Just remember to keep the pole perpendicular to the mast for optimum strength. Use either an adjustable mast car or set up two or three mast rings for best performance.

Enjoy your racing!

 

[C Jones]

Thanks Alan, I found a 1" and a 1-1/4" so I guess I'll just get the 1-1/4" then. The big 2+ inch I borrowed was way more than needed.

 

[cephius (Dave)]

I use a 1" adjustable length pole very successfully on my H260. It should be no problem on a H23.

 

[C Jones]

Thanks Dave, I have already ordered the 1-1/4" adjustable 4'-8' Forespar whisker pole from Defender. They had the best price on a new one. I missed a used 1" adjustable on ebay by not keeping a sharp enough eye out on the bidding. I will use it as my spinaker pole as well once I get the spinaker halyard blocks up.

 

[Brian M H23]

What did you do for a mast ring?

 

[C Jones]

Brian, I am still researching the mast ring. My thoughts are leaning to a track and adjustable ring in hopes a 3'-4' track will work when I use the whisker pole as my spinnaker pole. Individual and multiple mast rings may work fine and cost less but I,d hate to have 5-6 on the front of my mast. I,m open to ideas. My Mutt just has a single stainless ring that works well on jib or spinnaker. Charles


I just found a 1-1/4" track, sliding car and end stops at Garhauer, I wanted a 1" track but they don,t have 1" sliding cars that I can find. I think just a single ring 1' above my life lines will work ok for the whisker pole but I will need to fly the spinnaker to know about that height unless I can find a boat at my marina with one already on it. I just tied a line around my mast last Wednesday for the borrowed pole and padded the end at the mast. Jury rigged but it got me by for the race

 

[cephius (Dave)]

Ring

Since I don't race, I used the single one that came with the pole. I set it at a height that worked well for the jib when wing-on-wing. I got my aspin about a year later. The height just happened to work well with it too. (about 5' off the deck)

Note: My pole has the hook on both ends, not the spike shown in this photo.

 

[C Jones]

Thankyou Dave, I don't think mine will be that high as my Gus sails 135 Genoa when pulled tight inside my life lines is only about 6" off the deck. I'll just take the boat out on wings and get a good height measurment. It will cost less to have 2 instead of the track. I'll post the height and take a pic of it as soon as I finish. I wanted to take it out today but 35mph winds with 55mph gusts stopped me. Charles

 

[cephius (Dave)]

Pole Stowage

Here's how I stow my whisker pole and boat hook. There is another set of U bolts a couple of inches off the cabin deck.

I can pull these straight up as I climb up on the cabin and go forward.

The boat hook had a tendency to rattle, so I braided a line around it just at the U bolt.

 

[C Jones]

Wow, I like that. Looks like a Hunter factory option or should be. My cabin config. will not allow for that but I wish it would. I don't know how I will mount mine yet. Charles

 

[C Jones]

I emailed Garhauer yesterday at noon. I received a email reply today at 11:40 am
The email asked me to call Mark at Garhauer. He told me they did not make a 1" spinnaker/ whisker pole sliding car but they would make one for me. Take 3 weeks and total cost for the car, 4' of 1" track and 2 end stops was $87 shipping included. I told him I'd take it. Guess the hard part is going to be the waiting.

 

[Brian M H23]

Most important feature of the sliding ring is that you can raise it up high when not flying anything and it won't interfere with the jib sheets upwind. Fixed rings always catch them!

Also remember, the forestay is inclined ~ 60 degrees from vertical. If it was vertical, the clew height wouldn't change as it went out, but it's not, so it does.

 

[C Jones]

FYI, My 1-1/4" whisker pole arrived by UPS yesterday. All excited i opened it up only to discover it had a hook on one end and the pin type end on the other end. This is not what I thought I had ordered. That being 2 hook ends. I called Defender customer service this morning and they very nicely said to ship it back. They will send the correct one on Monday before this one gets back. I ordered Forespar #406000 and it should have been #406100. After re-reading the Defender description I saw "with latch fittings on both ends" This is fine and all but the one I ordered didnt say 1 hook and 1 pin. My mistake and I hope this saves someone else a weeks delay. Charles

 

[C Jones]

My mast track and whisker pole/ spinnaker sliding car arrived yesterday from Garhauer. On 5-11 they told me 3 weeks to build and ship the car. 9 days beats the heck out of 3 weeks. Now if the whisker pole arrives today like I was told I have work to do this weekend.