Need tips - Sailing a Venture 2-22 Downwind

[Hamin' X]

IIRC some on this board have used telescoping paint roller extensions from Lowes, or Home Depot. I don't remember how they rigged them to the boat.

~Rich

[c130king]

I can probably do some digging and find it but how long a pole is necessary on an with a 150 Genoa?

Thanks,
Jim

[Hamin' X]

As a general rule-of-thumb, it should be the length of the foot of the foresail. That being said, the use of a whisker pole is more of an art, than a science. Many variables come into play such as:

• The cut of the sail.
  The point of sail.
  The length of time maintaining a course.

Rigging a whisker pole for best performance, is not quick and you need to have a good down wind run ahead to justify the time expense.

A few hints to get the most from a whisker pole are:

• As you approach DDW, shorten the pole, but never shorter than the distance between the mast and the tack.
  As you head more to windward, lengthen the pole, but never more than the length of the foot.
  Keep the pole level with the clew, by using an adjustable track on the mast.
  Keep the clew from jumping, by rigging a downhaul from the end of the pole and going under a cleat, or jib car.
  Play, play, play.

Have fun.

~Rich

[PatrickS]

As I almost always single hand, I tend to look for techniques that don't involve having to mess about on the foredeck too much... so a whisker pole is more work I want to personally mess with by myself, even with 'Otto' steering.

In lieu of a whisker pole on the genoa, you can get by fine by sailing slightly off from straight downwind with the boom to windward and using a preventer. This keeps the genoa fuller and wind spilling off the main gets funnelled into the genoa. You don't have to be much off a run to keep the sails full, so being in a narrower channel is usually manageable, without having to gybe too often (and when you do, there's no pole to mess with).

Even with lots of water on each side, where I sail, the safe channels can still be fairly narrow, but I find the above technique quite workable.

I have preventer lines rigged on both sides of the boom, running from the boom hound, over the lifelines, to blocks on the stanchion bases adjacent the mast, and use the jib sheet cleats to secure them (I have separate cleats on the genoa runners I use for the genoa sheets). I run the bitter ends of each preventer line through the lifeline attachment ring at the aft of the curved railings near the winches, with a stopper knot, to keep them from getting away. (sorry, no photos)

To gybe, release the windward preventer line, come about, and take out the slack and secure the preventer line on the other side.

[Don T]

Hello,
I don't know as a preventer is any less work than a whisker pole. I noticed the boat picks up speed when I rig it. I have the one that came with the boat from BWY. I modified it to have a spike on one end so it sticks through the hole in the genny where the sheets attach. This allows me to let the sheet loose so the pole drops to the deck and I can furl the sail, all done quickly from the cockpit if need be. Pretty handy on the river with wind being so fickle. I can jibe the main over and go from wing on wing to a broad reach when sailing up river. Because our X boats are so narrow we don't get a smooth exit from the genny if we have the leach of the sail efficient. With the pole in, the sail is flatter and the exit is smooth so the main isn't back winded. I find there is a significant speed increase rigged this way. It does, however, require replacing the plastic hoop on the mast with a larger stainless one that goes further around allowing the pole to swing aft without breaking the hoop.

[c130king]

I agree with Patrick. I mostly single-hand and would prefer not to go up front to fiddle with a whisker pole. However, I think I would still like to have one for the times when I do have a sailing partner.

I have tried the home-made boom preventer but haven't got it to work yet. I will do some more digging on this site for pics and techniques for an but I can't quite get the angles to work out...seems like the angle between the boom and the preventer line is too shallow to work properly if the preventer is attached to the sheet bail. Maybe I need to look at attaching the boom preventer to the vang bail.

I have done the Wing-on-Wing a few times without preventer or whisker pole but it was fairly light winds and having to be very careful to keep the main from doing the unplanned gyble.

Jim