J24 Blog

The bowman on a J24 is a tough job. The bowman on OUR J24 is a really tough job.

It’s getting slightly easier this week.

We’re been heading down the path of upgrading our spinnaker pole with either a tapered carbon fiber, or more likely a tapered aluminum pole. We’ve been sailing with the original non-tapered aluminum pole with bridles. The goal for us right now is to get rid of the bridles.

When the pole is up and the spinnaker is flying, the top and bottom triangles formed by the bridles creates a huge obstacle to moving cleanly across the deck to deal with any tangles, or hourglassed sail. Then when the pole is down the bridles always seem to twist themselves around the pole and make it difficult to trigger the ends to release.

We’ve tested having the bridles taped down to the pole and using it like a center-attachment pole, but it got a bit dicey in some higher wind conditions last year. The front tip of the pole was flexing at least 5 inches up, threatening to break the pole during a reach. So we’re going with a different approach for the short term that we found recommended online.

We’ve replaced the loose, floppy wire bridles, with some high tech low-stretch cord pulled very tight up against the pole. That way there is just enough stretch to allow the bridle to carry the load appropriately for the pole design, but with a much smaller triangle effect. Plus, once the pole is released and back down to the deck, the bridles snug up right against the length of the pole instead of flopping and tangling on the deck.

We test drove it in the last two weeks (including the 20+ knots evening) with the wire bridles still on, but taped up to the pole and the second set of rope bridles carrying all the load. It worked well, so the wires have now been cut off.

The pole is now lighter, easier to use, and saved us from having to spend $400+ bucks.

I think we’re probably good for another season, or until the bowman / trimmer / driver improve enough that the equipment becomes and isssue.