Best Three Ways To Pole Out Your Genoa.

Are These The Best Three Ways To Pole Out Your Genoa For A Faster, More Stable Boat?

As a regular 'poler outer', I'm surprised to see how many boats with competent, skilled crews, are sailing downwind with limp headsails, flapping and snapping their way to early replacement.  

Poling out the jib takes only a few minutes to set up, but allows you to sail faster, at deeper angles and with much less wear and tear on your boat and sails … So what's not to like?

In this article we look at three YouTubers who advocate the regular use of either a whisker or a spinnaker pole. Each of them has their own methodology and reasoning for their preferred way of 'setting the pole'. 

These three set ups are easy to rig, repeatable and proven. 

I'll also concentrate on getting the best from your spinnaker pole as it's more likely your boat will have one, and by adapting whisker pole techniques to a spinnaker pole, I'll hopefully demonstrate that these methods are achievable for the average sailor.

James Conger   'Useful Sailing Gadgets' (at 13:20 secs. https://youtu.be/HtivypH7-Yk?feature=shared)

James's method is simplicity itself.

James describes his whisker pole as "essentially required equipment if you're going downwind in anything deeper than about 120 degrees…once you get used to it, you'll never want to sail without it.

 

Equipment:

To secure the inboard end of the pole, James has installed a ring on the mast at the same height as the headsail's clew. 

James had previously attached the pole directly to the jib sheet, but  now uses a dedicated stainless ring, connected to the clew with a soft shackle, for better performance.

A Stainless Steel Ring Is Attached To The Clew Of The Sail. 

Method:

Because James does most of his sailing short handed or solo, he has developed techniques to simplify handling the pole. He cleverly incorporates the furler into the system to effectively manage the whisker pole.

1. Furl the headsail most of the way in. 
2. Clip the pole onto the mast, then the clew ring. 
3. On the way back to the cockpit, move the jib cars back so that they will be pulling mostly aftwards when you sheet in. This avoids downward tension on the sail when sailing downwind. 
4. Unfurl the jib and adjust the sail for the conditions. 
5. To gybe, leave the pole attached, furl the jib in half way and pull it over with the other sheet.
6. To finish, roll in the headsail and remove the pole.

James notes that with the addition of a ring at the clew, the pole becomes independent of the sheet and the jib has the same extension on either side. 

James considers the pole to be…"mandatory if you're going to be sailing downwind with white sails ".

Pros

• Simplicity. 
• Ease of setup promotes regular use.
• Good 'quick fix' when conditions are changeable. 
• You don't have to leave the cockpit to gybe.

Cons

• James's pole attachment to the mast is set quite low. This enables the pole to pivot up and across when gybing. 
• This may be problematic if your pole connects at chest height like ours does and is the J measurement.

Fitting a low mast attachment adds extra cost and could become a trap for headsail sheets under normal operations like tacking.

Tip.

Using the lazy sheet as a foreguy by hooking it forward under a cleat and tensioning could add extra stability to this set up.

Pip Hare  https://youtube.com/@yachtingworld 'How to set up for downwind sailing without a spinnaker'. 

Pip Hare has a series of videos in partnership with Yachting World in which she demonstrates a number of approaches to improve your sailing technique, from upwind sailing to inside gybes.  

In the video, Pip describes how you can go downwind, "Fast and safe without using the spinnaker and hassle free".

Pip says "Poling out the genoa downwind will give you better speed because it brings the genoa out from behind the mainsail and presents its full area to the wind".

She uses the boat's spinnaker pole rather than a dedicated whisker pole. 

Pip's advice is to use an independent sheet rather than clip to the existing jib sheet. This allows a clean run straight to the back of the boat without it rubbing on the life lines. It also leaves the pole independent of the jib so you could gybe the boat if needed. 

On our own boat, we use a dedicated sheet with a rope stopper and snap shackle that serves for both poling out the jib and as the cruising chute sheet. Also, having it readily to hand means that it's not a chore to pole out the jib.

Method:

Before you start, make life easy by rolling in the genoa first. There's no point in leaning out, trying to connect the pole to a sail that's flapping outside of the boat! 

Pip advises that you rig a gybe preventer too. This is a line from the outboard end of the boom to a block at the bow and then back to the cockpit. This stabilises the boom and prevents it from unintentionally swinging across the boat in the event of an accidental gybe. Bringing the line back to the cockpit allows you to release it at any time and centre the boom if needed. 

When using the pole, Pip notes that it's better if the inboard end of the pole, the part that's attached to the mast, is higher than the clew of the sail as it's easier to manage. This is adjusted with the rope attached to the end of the boom known as the pole uphaul or topping lift. 

1. Roll in the genoa. 
2. Attach a dedicated sheet and run it outboard and back to the cockpit. 
3. Attach the topping lift or uphaul to the pole.
4. Take up slack in the topping lift.
5. Roll out the headsail. 
6. Keep the mast end of the pole higher than the clew end of the sail for ease of handling. 

Pros

• Easy to set up.
• Uses pre existing gear (in most cases).
• Known to be safe and fast.
• Ability to gybe or tack the boat out of trouble, without going forward in the event of a sudden or unexpected change of plans!

Cons

• Needs a separate sheet and pole uphaul.

This is the technique we employ on our Westerly Merlin. It offers good overall flexibility, sail shape and ease of set up.

What is the difference between a spinnaker pole and a whisker pole? 

A spinnaker pole is generally the same size as the distance measured from the front face of your mast at deck level to the forestay. This is known as the J measurement. 

A whisker pole is sometimes longer and needs to be the same size as the foot of your jib or genoa to get the maximum benefit. Telescopic poles that allow you to match the size of your chosen sail are available. They are generally used on white sails but can also be used on asymmetrics.

A whisker pole should be the length of the sail you intend to pull out. For those of us with spinnaker poles, using your roller furler to match the 'foot' length of the sail may be necessary. Personally, I'd rather have less sail area catching all of the wind than more sailing area backwinding and popping on each boat roll!

Tom Grimmett. https://youtube.com/@LifeFourPointZero

Tom from Life Four Point Zero notes that for many boats, particularly modern cruisers, sailing downwind can be a disappointingly slow experience. Tom says that his boat 'Searose' sails well into the wind but as soon as the wind comes behind you, at 100 to 140 degrees apparent, speed drops. And at greater angles, speed drops even more. Slower speeds equals more rolling. 

Swept back spreaders also inhibit the mainsail, preventing it from being set perpendicular to the wind. The headsail is shadowed from the wind and stops contributing to boat speed. Collapse, fill, collapse, fill etc.

A whisker pole pushes out the headsail keeping it in a fully open position and allowing it to escape the windshadow of the mainsail. And with anything in the 140-180-140 range, wing on wing configuration keeps the sails perpendicular to the wind. 

Tom states that wing on wing " is a tricky point of sail to manage"…and if you don't pay close attention to wind shifts or if the seas are large and irregular, it can lead to a dangerous accidental gybe, but with a whisker pole holding out the jib and a mainsail preventer, "you can safely sail down wind quite easily".

Method

1. Set the boat on a broad reach rather than dead downwind so you can unfurl the headsail in a controlled manner.
2. Set the autopilot if shorthanded. 
3. Attach the pole and connect the topping lift and foreguy.
4. Connect the pole to the sheet and raise the uphaul until the pole is the same height as the clew. 
5. Unfurl the sail. Make sure the foreguy is slack so you don't risk breaking the pole. But, too much slack and the pole could fly up out of control. 
6. Once the headsail sheet is trimmed, tension the topping lift and foreguy. 

Pros: Tom states the benefits are:

• Better downwind reaching.
• Better downwind running.
• More control with additional lines.
• Better speed.
• Less wear and tear on the sails and rigging.

Cons

• Takes a few extra minutes to set up.
• More complexity.
• No independent sheet in case of emergencies.

For sailing wing and wing, to save pressure on pole and crew, Tom suggests setting the headsail behind the mainsail first, then gybing the main over to the other side, as this is far easier than setting a wing and wing configuration from outset. 

On Test: How do they work with a fixed spinnaker pole?

Real World Testing 

James Conger's simple pole arrangement is remarkably easy to set up and unexpectedly stable. 

Adding a temporary ring to the clew of the jib was straight forward. In fact, the most difficult part was putting the pole away afterwards, in rather lumpy conditions. I imagined this method as a solution in light winds to keep the boat moving instead of using the engine, but it's much more than that.

Setting the jib cars further back improves stability and you're effectively creating a second mainsail. 

As soon as the pole was deployed the boat settled down. We used it on a broad reach in 11 to 16 knots of wind.

Gybing was trickier with a spinnaker pole, because the mast attachment for the pole is much higher on Romany, and therefore exceeds the forestay by 30 centimeters when horizontal. You can't trick the pole over, as the distance between the mast and forestay gets smaller as you go upwards, the genoa clew is too high to go downwards. So I had to go forward and physically disconnect at the mast in order to gybe. The working jib sheet also exerted downward pressure on the lifelines. 

However, looking back at the photo, I could have moved the jib car further aft to ameliorate this.

Pip Hare's method is also fairly easy in terms of set up. 

The independent sheet creates a clean, unimpeded run outside of the lifelines and offers the security of gybing or tacking the boat if needed, without having to go forward. Things can happen unexpectedly on the water and I'd feel safer with Pip's method than either furling the sail completely or running forward to disconnect the pole.  

I'm biased, as this is our usual set up and we have a suitably sized sheet from our cruising chute already on board. At the time of writing, we were using our smaller jib as the weather has been unseasonal, but we use a fairly large genoa most of the time, so using the topping lift offers extra support and helps set the pole at the right angle once you unfurl. 

Tom Grimmett's belt and braces approach is perfect for passage making, set and forget. Stabilising the boat, helping the self-steering, reducing wear and tear on rig and sails, and sailing faster! His approach embodies the idea of being kind to your boat.

What I've learned.

You can rig the lazy sheet as a temporary foreguy by hooking it under a deck cleat.

When using a spinnaker pole, experiment with rolling the sail in or out to help get a perfect set. 

For ease and safety, always set the pole with the headsail furled.  

By fitting a clew ring you can use the 'pole only' method but it also makes a convenient fitting to attach an independent sheet to as well.

Conclusion 

Tom Grimmett's approach is a safe and sensible choice for anyone doing long downwind passages. 

Until writing this article, I used Pip's method as my default for poling out the jib. Now I find that I am using James Conger's method, most of the time. In my view, Pip's is the safer and more seaman like option, however, I find myself continually popping up to the foredeck as soon as the wind goes aft to clip on the pole, even if it's just for a few minutes. Using the lazy sheet as an ad hoc foreguy is a trick I wish I'd learned years ago. 

A whisker pole would be a more flexible solution, as you can match the pole to the best sail angle at any given time. The spinnaker pole does a good job but is limited by being a set length. 

After poling out constantly for the last few weeks, the big lesson for me was stability.  

I cannot overstate the magical transformation to the boat's motion, the autopilot 'relaxes', sound levels decrease, comfort levels increase… wonderful!