Fitting a mast-track and car for Spinnaker

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Ric

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I want to fit a mast-track and car to my boat for spinnaker pole or whisker pole. I would like to be able to store the spinnaker pole up the mast. Grateful for advice on what fittings I will need.

How long should the track be approximately?

Do I just need an ordinary pad-eye up the mast to clip the upper end of the pole to? Or is there a more specialist fitting for this?

Do I need end-plates on the track?

If the Spinnaker pole is store up the mast, will it not tend to flop around? I seem to remember seeing a sort of rubber pad that is intended to stop this, but can't find one online now.
 
I have had to learn about this a bit as I inherited a spiny pole on deck, a mast track with no car and some ropes !
I have, I think, got it all to work but not used it in anger yet and almost posted a question on here.

Barton sells the kit you need and, unless you are on a Swan, a 25mm track will likely do plus two end-stops.

The length: the track does not go much below the lowest point at which you might need to deploy the pole. Then it needs to go from that point high enough that, when the pole is in position it is held there. Bit difficult to describe but it is the full length of the pole less a bit.

For what you describe you need a towable car (Barton #25304) which I recently bought and found Whitstable Marine to be the cheapest; these are rarely in stock and Barton make them for you. The ones in stock at chandlers has the spring stop which is no use.

You need two cheek blocks (one top and one bottom) and two means of jamming the rope. On mine there are V shaped open "jammers" but I suspect there are better fittings - you need to be able to jam the up and down lines in their respective directions depending on how you are using it at the time.

At the bottom of the mast (and separate from the bottom end of the track) is the storage fittings. On mine there is the shaped rubber block you described and a pivoting metal fitting. The fitting is similar to a large stainless "U" and the open ends attach P & S of the mast so that the closed middle is at the front of the mast. It is fitted so that the closed middle can move up and down as it pivots on the mast. THis is what the bottom of the spinny pole attaches to.

So to store the mast you clip one end to the large ring in the towable car and pull on the "up" line. Then when vertical you clip the bottom of the pole to the metal fitting at the bottom of the mast. To do so you will have to pivot the fitting and it may be, say, horizontal so that it is holding the pole a little away from the mast. Once clipped in top and bottom, you now pull the towable car down. This causes the fitting to pivot in closer to the mast and forces the bottom area of the pole against the rubber cushioning. Once under tension this way you jam it off.

When I got mine together I slightly despaired thinking the track was not long enough. I was trying to store it by hoisting the pole as high as a could against the U shaped fitting ("stretching" the pole) and the track was not long enough. Then I realised the U thing pivoted and I pulled the car down ("compressing" the pole) and it all dropped into place with the pole jammed against the rubber as the U shaped thing went through its arc.

So, 25mm track, two end stops, towable car, two cheek blocks and line, two jammers, rubber cushion and pivoting U shaped fitting.

Hope this helps.
 
Your description sounds like the Selden fitting see http://www.seldenmast.com/en/products/spinnaker_-_gennaker_hardware/vertical_pole_stowage.html and http://www.seldenmast.com/files/595-877-E.pdf

How do you stop the genoa sheet sometimes catching under it when you tack?

Note if you have this system with ordinary pole ends e.g. ZSpars of which you want the jaws facing upwards in service, to stow it using a simple ring for the top end, you will have to take it off the ring and turn it the other way up so that the bottom jaw faces the right way for the bracket (unless the loop is long enough for the pole to go inside it). So the pole cannot be deployed just by lowering it down the track, it has to be taken off and turned over. Hope you can follow that!

(I have a ZSpars pole on a Selden track that was already fitted, using a Barton car that I modified to fit. Why? Barton car £50 (Whitstable Marine, agreed!), Selden car over £300! I'm still looking for a good solution for the bottom end when stowed - it's just lashed at the moment.)

Unbeatable price for the pole from Craig at http://www.sailingschoolandrigging.com/Spinnaker-Poles-Yachts.html by the way.
 
Last edited:
Ric said:
I want to fit a mast-track and car to my boat for spinnaker pole or whisker pole. I would like to be able to store the spinnaker pole up the mast. Grateful for advice on what fittings I will need.

How long should the track be approximately?

Do I just need an ordinary pad-eye up the mast to clip the upper end of the pole to? Or is there a more specialist fitting for this?

Do I need end-plates on the track?

If the Spinnaker pole is store up the mast, will it not tend to flop around? I seem to remember seeing a sort of rubber pad that is intended to stop this, but can't find one online now.
Click to expand...
Hi Ric,
If it is not an absolute that the pole should reside on the mast, two pad eyes on the front face work for me.
The first is overhead height ,which gives a good set.
There is a second pad eye lower down which does for poling out the Genoa.
Very simple system,but pole must be on the deck chocks or on the stanchions.
Monel rivets are essential for fixings and these need to be pulled with a fairly massive tongs.
 
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