There is an old saying about sailing: “Gentlemen do not sail to windward”. This means that it is almost always more comfortable to sail with the wind behind you instead of sailing into the wind. When the wind is behind you, the waves gently push you along instead of the waves crashing over the bow and the boat pounding into them.
Measuring to align the track on the centerline of the mast
Generally, Madrone’s crew is happier sailing downwind. However, waves in the ocean change the equation. The waves cause the boat to roll, which then causes the forward sail to lose its wind and collapse. As the boat rolls back, the sail fills again causing a giant THWAP and a shudder through the entire boat. A few of these in a row is enough to convince us to roll in the sail and turn on the engine- which sort of defeats the purpose of sailing in the first place.
Drilling one of the 50+ holes
Since we enjoy sailing and prefer not to use the engine, we decided to install a whisker pole to help keep the sail full and prevent the dreaded thwapping. For a boat the size of Madrone, a whisker pole is usually 15-20 feet long, extending perpendicularly out from the front of the mast. The sheets for the jib or asymmetric spinnaker run through a jaw in the end of the whisker pole to hold the clew of the sail in place. This stabilizes the sail and prevents it from collapsing as the boat rolls with the waves.
Each of the holes then had to be tapped….
When it is not being used, it is easiest to store the whisker pole on deck or attached to the stanchions, but this can be a trip hazard and is also another place for lines and sheets to get snagged. Also, with a crew of 2, it can be difficult to set up and deploy the whisker pole when it is stored on deck. So we chose to store ours vertically on the front of the mast.
Pole stowed on the front of the mast
The inboard end of the pole is attached to an articulating car that runs on a track attached to the front of the mast. A system of blocks, cam cleats and control lines allows the car to be moved up and down the track. This lets the inboard end be pulled to the top of the track for storage or let down toward the bottom of the track when being used for sailing.
Installing this whole set-up turned out to be not be that hard, but it did take a lot of time. To install the track, Angie hoisted Mike up the mast in the bosun’s chair with a drill, drill guide, center punch, tap, tapping fluid, and a pocket-load of screws. Starting at the top of the track Mike drilled and tapped about 50 holes for the screws that were used to attach the track to the mast.
Mast-end of the deployed pole
After the track was installed we attached the whisker pole to a car on the mast track and secured the pole on the mast. Now we are ready for downwind sailing with our new whisker pole!
Running downwind with pole deployed and jib full of wind!
