Whisker Pole

[Paul Rybczynski]

I recently acquired a whisker pole to use on my O'Day 34. The 34 has two lower shrouds on each side of the mast. One is forward of the upper shroud and the ohter is aft. When I set the whisker pole for a down wind run and have a 155% jib hoisted, the pole wants to move aft past the lower forward shroud. Does anyone have experience using a whisker posle on this boat or another boat configured like this one and did you put the pole between the lower and upper shrouds when running a jib with a long foot or did you keep the pole forward of the shrouds?

I am using the lazy jib sheet and the active sheet to control the fore and aft movement of the pole. Another Halyard is the topping lift.

Thank You

Paul R

 

[Stu Jackson]

Keep it forward if you want to keep your mast up.

 

[Joe]

Your pole is too short for the 155... a longer pole will put the clew more forward and outboard. The pole's length is normally adjusted to match the foot of the sail. If your pole is fixed length, roll up the sail a bit (or hoist a smaller one).

Using your lazy sheet for a foreguy is not a good idea because it needs to be blocked down and forward on the deck to control the pole. It necessitates an expensive snatch block plus, it is inconvenient to cast off quickly. You would find it much easier to rig a dedicated foreguy which you can leave on deck.... like a spinnaker pole set up. You can just use a simple bullet block at mid foredeck and a snap hook for the pole connection with the end run back to the cockpit. When you take the pole down you can leave the foreguy attached, ready for the next deployment to either side.

 

[Paul Rybczynski]

Thanks for the comments. The pole does adjust to 22 feet in length so it should be long enough for a 155 on a boat with a 14 foot J dimension. It sounds like I need to use the working sheet and a fore guy to make sure the pole stays in front of the forward lower shroud.

PR

 

[Alan]

Using the pole length adjustment to set the correct draft for sail shape. Then the topping lift, sheet and foreguy will fix the location of the pole with no movement.