Whisker pole at 150-160?

[tradrockrat]

Hi all

The admiral and I are sailing from Puerto Rico to Florida tomorrow and we're discussing the whisker pole.

At 150-160, would you pole out behind the main or go wing and wing?

We're getting mixed opinions.

Thanks!

[SailingHarmonie]

It depends on your boat. Why listen to anybody? Just try it see what works. Then you can have your own opinion.

[tradrockrat]

I'm just always looking for more information from experienced sailors.

[Scubaseas]

Wind? Sea State? Depends on the boat and conditions. Like Sailing Harmonie said try it and see what works. I would run a preventer at the end of the boom to the bow and back to cockpit no matter which way you do it. Maybe just the head sail. If you roll too much raise some main even if over trimmed, it usually will steady the boat. My Pearson 323 would sail a 160AWA fine without the pole on main and genoa. YMMV.

[SailingHarmonie]

It depends on the boat, the rig, and the details of YOUR sail plan. A high cut yankee will behave very differently than a deck sweeping genoa. The length of the pole matters. Lots of variables.

You already have heard opinions both ways. What good does more versions of those opinions do?

I don’t mean to be snide, but this is a bit like asking someone else, “Do I like broccoli?” Just try it! See which works for you.

I could tell you what works on my boat, but that wouldn’t mean a thing for a Tayana 37.

That’s this experienced sailor’s advice.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by tradrockrat

Hi all



The admiral and I are sailing from Puerto Rico to Florida tomorrow and we're discussing the whisker pole.



At 150-160, would you pole out behind the main or go wing and wing?



We're getting mixed opinions.



Thanks!

On our catamaran the headsails (including gennaker on the bow pole) get blocked at around 150-160* AWA (you are talking apparent wind angle, right?). So we either head up to 130-140* AWA to keep the headsail full, or we bear away to 165-170* AWA and go wing and wing.

On the cat we don’t need a pole, but on a monohull you can sail up to about 160* AWA with the headsail poled out to windward. At that angle you could pole out the headsail to leeward, but all that will do is stop it collapsing - it won’t get much wind because of the mainsail.

The alternative is don’t hoist the mainsail. Then your headsail will be full even DDW. This can be effective if you have a larger overlapping genoa, and/or the wind is over 15 knots.

[Kd9truck]

Either way I would add a boom preventer if you don’t already do so, but I would rather it be all on one side. Imho it’s safer and my vessel the auto pilot can get a wee bit Squirrley wing on wing (direct down wind) when the wind tics above 15 knots in the typical sea state for that wind off shore.