whisker pole

[Bob 04 H260]

I was out yesterday in very light winds and tried my asymmetrical spinnaker (a Doyle sail from my previous boat), it worked alright but at times we really needed a whisker pole. I have a 2" Forespar whisker pole but do not have a ring to mount it on the front of my mast. Looking at the local chandlery and also at Defender I don't see anything that looks like it is made to fit the curved front surface on a 260 mast. Does Hunter supply one as an option and if so does anyone know the make & model ?
thanks Bob

 

[Alan]

Please explain. Why do you think you need a whisker pole to fly an Asail ??

Whisker poles are used to push the clew of a sail out away from the boat while sailing wing on wing. An Asail is made to fly on the same side as the main while broad reaching. The only time you may want to use a pole is on the tack of the Asail to move it to the weather side.

 

[Paul356]

It can help to whisker out the asym on a broad reach, to help keep it from getting blanketed by the main, especially with the big mains we have on the current crop of Hunters. And if you can go wing on wing with the asym DDW, why not. The specifics will vary for each boat and sail. There's no standard dimension for an asym, so some will take a whisker and some won't.

 

[caguy]

I was out yesterday in very light winds and tried my asymmetrical spinnaker (a Doyle sail from my previous boat), it worked alright but at times we really needed a whisker pole. I have a 2" Forespar whisker pole but do not have a ring to mount it on the front of my mast. Looking at the local chandlery and also at Defender I don't see anything that looks like it is made to fit the curved front surface on a 260 mast. Does Hunter supply one as an option and if so does anyone know the make & model ?
thanks Bob

The ring on mine is attached (welded) to a track car. So you can adjust the height of the pole. The track is riveted to the front of the mass.

 

[Bob 04 H260]

I have used a whisker pole many times with both a genoa and an asymmetrical, there are times when it just does not seem to work without one.

I had a track on my last boat but was trying to simplify things on this one and just have a ring mounted on the front of the mast, maybe just in front of the gooseneck ?

thanks for all the info so far

 

[FutsalFred]

There are a couple of different styles, depending on the pole:

http://www.westmarine.com/1/1/7793-mast-pad-eye-from-ronstan.html

 

[Bob 04 H260]

I intended to include this picture in last post..........

 

[Bob 04 H260]

There are a couple of different styles, depending on the pole:

http://www.westmarine.com/1/1/7793-mast-pad-eye-from-ronstan.html

thanks, does anyone know the radius of the mast on a 260 ?

 

[Brian M H23]

When I mounted my mast ring, I first wrapped the mast with plastic wrap, mixed up some thick epoxy, and clamped the mast ring on the mast with the epoxy between in order to mate the surfaces better. Once cured, i removed the plastic wrap, trimmed the epoxy, and mounted the ring.

 

[Bob 04 H260]

thanks, very smart idea Brian ! I just went on the US Spars website, they have their parts organized by boat make and model, they show a spinnaker ring in the mast diagram for a 260, so I ordered one, so it should be a good fit, if it needs the epoxy treatment I'll do that too