Spinnaker Pole Setup on SO40

[touchngo]

Hi,
Wondering if anyone has any experience setting up a Spin pole on an SO40? Specifically, how do you run the lines for controlling the mast attachment. My mast has a track on it, but being an ex charter boat, it is completely unused. No blocks, car, lines etc...

I'm planning on setting up the pole to use with both the Genoa and a Cruising Chute (I know these are usually just tacked down to the bow, and that will be the case here too, but on our other boat, we do find it handy to rig on the pole as an asymetric too). Do you think it's necessary to go with a standard Spin Pole, or could we get away with a telescoping whisker pole?

Cheers, PT.

[MartyB]

You might get away with a whisker pole if it is strong enough. Otherwise, a spin pole is typically larger in diam for the length, as such, it will take a lot more wind to bend it. I used a whisker pole on the tack of my AS a few times at my J length. but even tho only extended a foot or so, it still bent a bit in winds up to 10 knots. With an actual spin pole, it does not bend even in winds to 20 knots. With a 150 genny, a whisker pole extended most of the way out does not bend attached to the clew. If you attach a whisker to the clew with an AS, you may be ok. I would still up size the pole diam one. WHich may make it a bit heavy to operate. Where as a carbon spin pole would be way lighter, altho a bit more money than an alum whisker pole. Altho some whisker poles do come with aluminum and carbon portions to keep the weight down.

As far as making so the ring on the front of the mast is movable up and down by lines. I do not think even the performance or older sun fast models had this as a factory option. You will have to install this yourself. If you go to some of the block manufactures sites like Harken, they have to a degree, some off the shelf setups for the spin ring you can buy. or at least buy the parts as needed.

marty

[touchngo]

Cheers Marty. I feel also that a Spin Pole is the way to go. Hadn't really thought about anything other than an aluminium one because of cost, but I guess it's worth looking into. Have browsed through a bunch of my photos (boats in Turkey so only get to scope it out when I'm actually on board) and see now that I've got a few spare sheaves in one of the deck organizers. Just have to put some clutches in place, and mount some blocks on the track.

Interestingly the manual shows no adjustment at all for the pole at the mast.

As far as running the CS as an Asym, do you use the tack line as your foreguy? I'm thinking that it will serve the same purpose and will run two guys to the tack, and two sheets to the clew. The adjustable pole end at the mast should then help with dipping the pole when gybeing.

Am curious how others do it though.

[moleman58]

Hi PT,
with ref to the track set up, you will need two blocks attached top and bottom of the track and two cleats mounted on the mast and a lenth of rope (8mm ish) attached at the top and bottom of the eye and rigged continuously through the pulleys and cleats.

Make sure you get the right mast mounted pulleys with a formed base to sit nicely on the curved front of the mast, these are made by Ruttgerson on my SunFast 37 and can be attached using 4 monel rivets.

Be careful when fixing the cleats, these will need self tappers, make sure the length of the screw is just long enough to go through the wall of the mast. Then remove the screw and take off any sharp edges on the end with a file. You really only need to do this if a halyard or topping lift inside the mast goes past it, so could catch on the screw tip, but its good practice in any case.

You do not need to get the line tight in a continous loop so long as you can take out the slack by grabbing the line, using one hand and twisting it no more than 90 degrees.

I am just refitting mine so have gone through all of this

Hope that helps

Mark

[MartyB]

PJ, I do as you say, tack is forguy, and I remove the pole before gybing. Guys for the pole are permanent per say on the pole. Because I have a mini-forestay, I need to remove the pole from the mast, then shift side to side thru the mini stay triangle. I can not dip pole gybe per say, even if I had a std Symmetric chute.

I would imagine if you looked at an SF37, or a SF40 potentially OM or brochure, you might see how Mark has his setup for the mast pole ring. Or maybe next time he is at his boat, he can take a pic, so you have an idea on how to start per say on this part. Then look up options at harken, they have a compuspec part of the site, put in boat type, ie then follow prompts to what you want to add, change etc. They list winch, main sheet, jib/main traveler's......all kinds of options, depending upon if you race, cruise, wind conditions. Then they have multiple options on how to change or do things too. At the end, you get a complet list with part numbers and a cost based on MSRP. Obviously, if you shop, there listing of say $1000 for parts, can be had for 30-40% less.

Then deck organizers, if you do not have enough on one side, you can double stack them. I have a quad doubled on one side, and a quad with a triple on top on the other side of my boat for all the lines I run. Just put the higher tension lines on the bottom, lighter on the top. The bottom organzer will be good to say 1000 lbs/newtons/kg's(choose yourforce/wt rating you use) of force, the top one will be good to 500 lbs or half of the bottom unit. A line for the pole ring would be a good option for the top, especially since it would probably be 6-8mm line vs 10-14 mm line for the halyards etc. Also make sure if you have extra clutches, that the clutch will handle the smaller line diam. I redid all mine with spinlocks, and some are good from 8-14, others 4-10 or there abouts. Same frame, just different innards to handle the line diam differences.

Good luck, take pics, and notes, get info to Malcom ie our lustrous web master, he can put in the hints and tips section for others to get an idea on what and how they can do this add-on.

Marty

[touchngo]

Thanks Marty & Mark.

I've got some space in my deck organizers, but will need to put in some clutches.

Have been thinking of whether to dip the pole when gybing or just take it off, feed it back behind the mast and out the other side. Only trouble with this that I can see is that the end will crash down to the deck if I go with the pole end being supported as opposed to having a bridle set up like you would with end for ending the pole.

Any thoughts.

Cheers, PT.

[moleman58]

Hi PT,
we have the same dilema wether to go for end to end or dip pole. I am going to set up the uphaul as a bridle but with one side of the bridle with a quick release fitting. This way we can disconnect it and connect to the front of the pole, then we have the option to dip pole gybe.
The method you mention is ok when the pole is low (almost on the deck), so it doesn't crash down, but requires more man handling than either of the 2 above. If you watch some Americas Cup footage this is how they gybe the pole with the big assymetrics.

Mark

[MartyB]

Some of the will the pole crash to the deck if you will, will depend upon the length and wt of the pole. Mine being 12' is reasonably easy to handle, even tho it weighs ~15 lbs or about 6KG's, If I had a carbon is would be almost 1/3 of the wt, ie about 5-6 lbs from looking at specs., even easier to handle. This is for a 3" diam pole. Your pole is probably 15-18' and double the wt for either carbon or alum. Carbon may make sense depending uon the number of folks you have up front. Racing I have two, so not a really big deal. if spouse and I, then guess who is up front doing the work. she is lucky to get us tacked or gybed on the rudder much less doing sail or otherwise work.

I would consider having a few options depending upon what you find works best. Before we bought the actual spin pole, we played with the AS in lighter winds, trying to see what did or did not work well. Spole with a genoa, works best moving end to end, with the AS, then it is leave the boom end the boom end, disconnect, back thru the mini stay and then forward to the tack. Or forward up and over mini stay and back down to the mast.

Hopefully some of the help figuring out what will or will not work for you.

marty

[touchngo]

Although Janet & I have been racing together for a number of years now, and usually it's just the two of us, Onyx is HUGE in comparison to our Limbo 6.6 and Hobie 16. We've managed so far with her fairly simple setup (Main & Genoa), but I am sure that I'm going to be the only one at the pointy end through most of this (although I'm sure she'll have a go in lighter winds). Probably like most married couples that race, I've always found it easier to have her helm and me work the boat and call the shots. At least with the Hobie I've been getting to drive for a change!

As far as this topic goes, I'm trying to visualize each step before we do it for real. This'll be the biggest pole I've had to handle on my own so far (done a fair bit of sailing over the years including a lot of shorthanded stuff, but not on anything bigger than 34 feet so far (as far as working with a kite and pole goes) and have always "end for end"ed the pole and worked with regular kites). Hence all the questions. I'm definitely looking at keeping it light (just got to find a way of rolling the pole up and putting it in my luggage to outfox those dastardly customs blokes).

Appreciate your responses and I definitely like the idea of a bridle/end clip idea. Can see that working well with the pole uphaul and traveller being worked at the mast.

Bear with me if you will;

Would you ease the uphaul, unclip from the pole end, clip to the bridle, raise the uphaul a little (stops the pole banging the deck when you disconnect from the mast end), release the guy from the pole jaws, disconnect mast end, ease pole back behind the main, pull the tack line on, initiate the gybe, send pole forward, clip the guy in to the pole end, make the pole at the mast, ease the uphaul, unclip from the bridle and clip to the pole end, then raise the uphaul, bring pole back, grind on the foreguy tack line, and off you go? Or did I just miss something really important?

Reading back through that, I'm thinking it might be easier just to stick with a bridle for the uphaul. What do you all think?
Cheers, PT.