[mondofromredondo]

I'm a newbie when it comes to using my whisker pole with my Genoa.
My question is this. I have never used my whisker pole before and when I purchased this PSC cutter it has a cotton line that I believe is to be used when rigging the whisker pole. This cotton line has a pelican attach for attaching to the genoa. But this line also has a plastic disk on it about 6" down from the Pelican attach. I've not seen this disk in any sketches about rigging a whisker pole. My question is does this disk sit fwd or aft of the whisker attach point? Or maybe this line was never meant for rigging the whisker pole. But I'm puzzled and thought this would be the first place to ask. I originally thought this line was for towing dinghy but I'm just not certain. I'm looking forward to poling out my genoa for downwind sailing but just gotta get this detail straight in my head before I go giver her a try.

Thanks to all !!!

 

[svHyLyte]

Keith--Your description leaves something to be desired vis-a-vis information. Never the less, firstly, I would be surprised to a line made of "cotton" aboard a boat these daze unless it was something picked up on the cheap for intermittent use as the stuff isn't very durable in marine use. N'any case, the plastic (or Nylon) disk you describe is used before an end connector on a line to prevent the connector being drawn into and damaging the sheaves on a block or mast fitting. One often sees them on halyards, especially so for free flying sails, where the sail's luff length doesn't limit the range of motion of the halyard. One might also see them on a dual purpose guy for a pole, to prevent the end connector being drawn into the jaws of the pole end, but that would be unusual. If so, however, the line would be led through the pole-end jaws and the end connector snapped around the working sheet with, perhaps, a light trip line led to the end connector along the length of the pole so that the sheet could be freed from a position at the mast. The guy itself is led forward to a deck fitting near the stem and then aft and is used to control the fore'n aft position of the pole and keep it off the shrouds. Even with only a 14.5' J and a fixed pole length, you would likely also use a topping lift led to the pole end to take the weight of the pole off the sail's leach. At that length, however, unless the sail has little or no overlap (which may be the case on a PSC34 considering the rig) I would expect to find a two part, extendable, whisker pole, perhaps a line-drive pole. N'any case, good luck!

FWIW...

 

[mondofromredondo]

Svhylyte,

Thanks so much for this detailed explanation. Things are much more clear to me now. I suspected something of this nature but hadn't thought of the also very obvious possiblility of keeping the halyard from going further into a block.

Thanks again !!

 

[wsmurdoch]

Forespar has a video that may be useful to you.

Twist Lock Whisker Poles

There are also other videos and written instructions on their web site for different equipment. Look around.

We go downwind with the genoa poled out and with a preventer on the main. It works like a charm, but it can be a ***** to get it all down and put away when the weather changes for the worse.

Be aware; they have changed their recommended methods a time or two over the years. Your set up may reflect an earlier method.

Bill Murdoch
Irish Eyes
1988 PSC 34