Forespar's Point of View

A Little Bit of Downwind Sailing

Sailing downwind is a great way to get to your destination whether racing or cruising. Using a whisker pole to hold your jib or genoa and go wing on wing is the best use of the combination of both the main and foresail. A whisker pole allows you to sail dead downwind without having to gybe, increasing performance and boat handling characteristics. Additionally, sail makers recommend the use of a whisker pole with an asymmetrical spinnaker on displacement boats to help with downwind performance.

Whisker poles hold the clew of the headsail out from behind the mainsail wind shadow. They are flown on the opposite side of the main boom and project and hold the clew of the headsail (jib, genoas or asymmetrical) out into clear air. This aids in downwind speed as you now have the full use of the sail area of whichever headsail is flown. Without the whisker pole, the headsail flops from one side to the other, never fully filling and virtually useless. Whisker poles are sized based on the foot length of the headsail being flown. 100% of the foot is the proper length for the whisker pole when attached to and projected from the mast. This is why telescoping poles make sense on boats under about 55 feet. This length can be as much as 80% longer than “J” for a given boat. You can see why telescoping poles are desirable. If your “J” is 15 feet and you have 180% genoas, where would you store a 27-foot pole! A longer length will be used for close reaching with the length being shortened more and more as you go from broad reach to downwind.

How do you know when it’s time to deploy a whisker pole for downwind sailing? When the jib sheet goes limp and you have to head up to get more boat speed or you have to sheet in until the jib leech is too close to the main and is hurting its performance. Then it’s time! However, other factors require consideration. In heavy winds giving near hull speed, deploying a pole will only be advantageous after you are off the wind by more than150o apparent. In very light winds, you may find advantage as early as 90o to 100o apparent. In general the pole should be kept near 90o to the apparent wind just as with spinnaker pole practice. Properly sized, the whisker pole will store vertically up the mast or on deck.

To get the most lift and best speed out of a poled out jib, trim it until the leech (which is now acting as the luff) begins to curl back just as is done with a spinnaker. As you head more and more on a downwind course, there will be a tendency for the jib clew to lift and even oscillate up and down. A foreguy will help keep the clew at the right height for best boat speed. This height will vary as dictated by apparent-wind speeds and angles or even wave conditions. On smaller boats, say under about 30 feet, the leeward sheet can be tucked under a bow cleat horn and used as a downhaul. On boats 30 ft. and over you should be using both a topping lift and a foreguy.

Whisker poles cannot be jibed end-for-end as with spinnaker poles. The procedure is to ease the foreguy, remove the pole from the mast, pass it aft between the mast and what will become the lee shrouds until the forward end can be passed through the foretriangle and switch the sheet attachment on the forward end of the pole. Then push the pole to weather and reattach to the mast. The sheet trimmer must tend the weather sheet to help control the pole as it is pushed forward or the jib and the pole will be slammed against the head stay. The main should not be jibed until the pole jibe is completed. When it’s time to dowse the pole it is pretty much a reverse process.

On cruising boats that have furling headsails, the safest and easiest way to jibe a whisker pole is to furl the headsail first, then retract the pole so you can swap sheets at the outboard end and reset the pole on the opposite side. Then unfurl the headsail on the new tack. This clears the foredeck and keeps control of the pole as you ease the topping lift and retract the pole to reach the end. Non-spinnaker class racers have found this method to be more efficient and, in the long run, faster as well. If you get a pole fouled during a jibe, the amount of time it takes to clear away (not to mention the course you must hold) far exceeds the time it takes to furl and unfurl the headsail.

Come visit Forespar at the Annapolis Boat Show!

Come visit the staff from Forespar at the Annapolis Sailboat show next week. The Annapolis sailboat show is the oldest and largest all sailboat show in the United States. It is an in the water sailboat show held at the City docks in downtown historic Annapolis, MD in the shadows of the United States Naval Academy. In addition to the show Annapolis is filled with wonderful restaurants. boat yards and water based activities. Come join us in Tent C, booths 67-73. We will be displaying our new Quik Davits, Leisure Furl booms, Boat Care Products and more. For more information and to purchase tickets go to:

http://www.annapolisboatshows.com/united-states-sailboat-show/

The A Sail

The modern asymmetrical headsail, in all its design variation, is a very popular and versatile sail. Today, a great many cruisers and club racers carry them. The sail in its original form was set off the long sprits of Aussie 18 skiffs to power their little rocket ships to impressive speeds, and from there, the sails were adopted to the planing sport boats and again set from sprits. In time, displacement hull cruising boat owners began to see the benefits of easy handling during off wind sailing, and the overall popularity of asymmetricals took off.

The important thing to note here is that the typical cruiser or cruiser/racer is not a planing sport boat, and the hull form does not reach downwind like as such. Thus, for better performance and sailing downwind angles of greater than approximately 135 degrees apparent, and even dead downwind, the right solution is setting a light weight fixed or telescoping pole. This way, the real versatility of these sails is achieved.

While these sails were originally marketed to cruisers and cruiser/racers as “pole less” sails, today there is a changing trend toward the use of poles to round out the full value of the asymmetrical.

Forespar has a family of fixed and telescopic poles in aluminum and carbon fiber. If a boat owner makes a choice of a fixed pole, using a pole 15% over the boat’s J dimension works well. Poles can be stowed on deck, on the mast or on the lifeline and Forespar offers gear to do it all.

5 Reasons You Should Use a Whisker Pole

1. You Can Sail Deeper Angles:

A whisker pole allows you to sail deeper angles downwind because it keeps the jib from collapsing and keeps it from being backfilled by the main. Additionally, a whisker pole allows you to sail wing-on-wing and increases downwind performance.

2. You Can Sail Faster:

An article in the September 2014 edition of Sail Magazine stated that “a poled-out A-sail pulls like a train.” Enough said.

3. Increases Sail Area:

A whisker pole increases sail area and pulls the headsail in front of the main. This allows clean air to power the headsail and keeps the jib from collapsing due to back filling.

4. Improved Performance with an Asymmetric Spinnaker:

Many people are not aware that sail manufacturers recommend the use of a whisker pole with asymmetric spinnakers when sailing dead downwind. The pole can be placed on either the windward side attaching to the tack or on the leeward side attaching to the clew. This pulls the A-sail in front of the main and allows you to sail dead downwind. Without a whisker pole, you’re stuck gybing to your mark.

5. Makes Cruising More Enjoyable:

Whisker poles improve the cruising experience in a number of ways. The pole keeps the jib from flopping and being back filled by the main. This results in a more comfortable ride and better boat handling. Additionally, with a whisker pole you can “set it and forget it”, allowing you to sail dead downwind with minimal effort because you do not have to constantly gybe. For the dedicated sailor, this greatly enhances your cruising experience.

Check out our whisker poles here: http://www.forespar.com/whisker-poles.shtml

A Great Finish to DPYC’s ‘Thirsty Thursdays’ Summer Series

Thursday evening marked the end of Dana Point Yacht Club’s weekly ‘Thirsty Thursday’ race series. With the large swells and strong wind from Hurricane Marie, the sailing did not disappoint and provided an excellent final race for the 18 race series.

The wind was blowing hard out of the North, gusting up to 15 mph. The Catalina 30 ‘Bon Vivant’ I was racing on competed against two J 24’s, ‘Superstrings’ and ‘Whasabe 2’, and a Santana 30, the ‘Amancer de la Libertad’ in the PHRF-C class. Although only a few boats in our class showed up, the racing proved to be exciting.

Tacking back and forth, we managed to get a good upwind position on the line, and crossed the pin a couple of seconds after the start gun. We made our way to the first mark close hauled on a westerly heading. It was a close battle between the two J 24’s all the way. Fighting for every inch, we soon paralleled Super Strings. Being windward, we avoided being pushed off by the leeward Superstrings. We were the first boat to reach the mark with a good distance between the other two boats.

As we rounded the mark, I set our Forespar whisker pole so that we would have the advantage sailing down wind on a southerly heading. Extending the pole, I was able to dramatically increase our genoa sail area. Additionally, we were able to sail wing-on-wing because we had deployed our pole. Neither of the other J 24’s used a pole, and could not sail wing-on-wing and their genoas were being back filled by the main. Their genoas could not stay nearly as open and catch as much wind as ours could. We soon increased our lead over the other boats because we used our whisker pole.

Once we rounded the downwind mark, we made our way back to the first mark. We were still in first for a good majority of that leg. However, Superstrings made the decision to tack up and then back down to the mark, while we decided to hold our heading. With this move, Superstrings was able to maneuver themselves into first place. We rounded the mark and then made our way on a beam reach to the Dana Point harbor breakwater.

As soon as we entered the harbor, we experienced strong gusts and surges. This was last leg of the race, where we would have to tack up the channel and cross the point where the Dana Point Yacht Club is located. The next 10 minutes we constantly tacked while sailing close hauled. This was the most exciting part of the race because of the constant tacking. As we approached the finish line, we avoided hitting the sandbar, which the Flying Tiger 10 ‘Ruckus’ had done. We crossed the line in second place with a corrected time of only 29 seconds behind Superstrings. Whasabe 2 finished five minutes behind us. The Amancer de la Libertad did not finish the race (probably because they missed their start time and went with the wrong group). Taking second place was a great result and an exciting way to finish of the summer sailing series.