[Rhodes22-list] Whisker Pole Rigging - A Word of Caution

[Peter Nyberg]

One of the limitations of YouTube videos is that there’s no way to edit or add an addendum to a video after it’s been published.  The whisker pole video could use an addendum.  For those interested, the original video on rigging a whisker pole is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7d-D0qNhg <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7d-D0qNhg>

The video shows me mounting 10’ of T-track to the forward face of the mast.  This was done with 1/4” x 28 tpi flat head bolts screwed into holes drilled and tapped into the mast at a spacing of 4”.  I’d guesstimate that the aluminum mast is about 1/8” thick along this face.

The track serves two purposes.  When the whisker pole is being stored on the mast, both ends are attached to cars that can slide on the track.  When the whisker pole is in use, the mast end of the pole remained attached to its movable car.  This allowed the position of the mast end of the pole to be adjusted up-and-down.  

The attachment of the track to the mast was not strong enough to serve in the second use-case.  On a boisterous crossing of Nantucket Sound, while sailing wing-on-wing with my 175% genoa, the bottom 3 feet of track pulled free from the mast.  So, I can’t really recommend the approach I took in the video.

Now, I still use the track for storing the whisker pole, but I have a fixed ring bolted to the front on the mast which secures the mast end of the whisker pole when it is deployed.  I got the ring from Dwyer; I’m pretty sure it’s part # 'DH 668’.  It’s secured to the mast with six 1/4” bolts that are at angles of about 45 degrees from athwart-ships, so two sets of 3 about 90 degrees from each other.   Intuitively, this feels much stronger.

Despite this mishap, I’m very happy to have the whisker pole aboard.  It can be used to set up a wing-on-wing configuration over an arc of 40 to 45 degrees either side of straight down-wind.  For much of this same arc, without a whisker pole, the foresail becomes useless because it is blanketed by the main.

Now, if I could only find the time to get my boat ready to sail for this season…

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)


> On May 26, 2020, at 1:28 PM, Jesse Shumaker <jesse.laten.shumaker at gmail.com> wrote:

…

> Peter has an
> impressive whisker pole setup highlighted on his youtube videos that I may
> attempt to replicate at some point.

...