Boat hook for whiskerpole

[Survivor]

In researching whiskerpoles, I have seen reference to some people using a boathook for a whiskerpole. I have a Lancer 25 that I just bought and there's not a lot of money left for extras. I have an extendable boathook to 12ft and if possible would like to use it. Will it really work without bending and if so what's the best way to rig a hook for the part that goes against the mast?

Harris

[capttb]

If the wind is real light it will work for awhile, my personal experience with using boat hooks, light weight dinghy poles, homemade PVC pipes Etc. is that you break it at some point.

[sailaway21]

It'll probably work fine without bending as you're not going to put that much strain on it just keeping the clew poled out. In light air for shorter runs you may find that a crew member can just sit there casually holding it in position. Given that it's a boat hook I wouldn't spend too much effort in creating any kind of a mounting bracket, although most whisker poles use a padeye mounted on the mast and you could probably order one of those from Forespar conveniently in the size for your future whisker pole. Otherwise you can just lash it to the mast temporary and use some small stuff to tie it to the clew of the sail. You can just cut the small stuff away then when unrigging.

[sailboy21]

I used to do just that on my O'Day 25. I had a hose clamped shackle on the grip. The pointed end went through the clew grommet. Worked great in lighter airs. Wasn't fancy but sure was nice for the pocket book. It never did break, but if it did oh well... Wasn't going to shed any tears over an old boathook!

[heinzir]

I use a 6-12' adjustable whisker pole for my jib or drifter and a boathook for the staysail when sailing wing and wing and wing on my small cutter. No topping lifts, downhauls, or other lines. Just the sheets. The whisker pole and the boat hook snap on to separate pad eyes on the mast.

I bought an appropriate size latch end fitting from Forespar and epoxied it into the butt end of the boat hook. The plastic grip slides over the connection and makes it look as if it was designed that way. As a bonus, the latch end can be snapped to a padeye on deck to keep the boat hook from rolling off when not in use.

[davidpm]

We tried a boat hook on an catalina 27 for about an hour in 10 knots of wind before it bent in half.