Downwind
is pretty much it... straight downwind. When sailing wing on wing with or without a whisker pole, steering too much right or left will cause the jenny to luff. It can also cause the main to jibe. If the jenny is poled out, it will still want to lift. I use a makeshift downhaul with a piece of line tied to the end of the pole and rove through a block forward on the rail and led back to the cockpit to control it. If you steer in such a manner to cause the main to swing across the cockpit, that will put you on a starboard or port reach which is ok, but be careful of the boom which will swing quickly and with a lot of force if the wind is up. Actually, if the wind is up, you probably don't need all the power generated by sailing wing on wing. As to making a whisker pole, parts are available to make one, but I bit the bullet and bought an adjustable pole which is clamped securely to the stanchion posts... almost all of the time. I seldom use it on Lake Erie. If you want more information on whisker/spinnaker poles, go to the archives and type whisker or spinnaker pole. There is a lot of good info there. Those are my thoughts, Tom
