Whisker Pole with Cruising Chute?

[CJ13]

We have a Cruising Chute, which we use regularly. We've never used a Spiniker Pole, but have the oportunity to buy a 2nd hand Whisker Pole, adjustable 3.7-6.1m, which seems to be the right size for our boat.
Looking on the net Whisker Poles seem to be recommended for poling out a Genoa, but no mention is made of use with a Cruising Chute.
We've friends who use a Spiniker Pole to pole out their Chute dead downwind which makes a huge difference to its stability. Would a Whisker Pole be strong enough to use with a Chute or do we really need a fixed Pole?

John

 

[Seajet]

John,

without seeing pole, sail and boat there's no way of telling if the pole is up to the job, but if it is then yes it should be useful.

 

[VicS]

We have a Cruising Chute, which we use regularly. We've never used a Spiniker Pole, but have the oportunity to buy a 2nd hand Whisker Pole, adjustable 3.7-6.1m, which seems to be the right size for our boat.
Looking on the net Whisker Poles seem to be recommended for poling out a Genoa, but no mention is made of use with a Cruising Chute.
We've friends who use a Spiniker Pole to pole out their Chute dead downwind which makes a huge difference to its stability. Would a Whisker Pole be strong enough to use with a Chute or do we really need a fixed Pole?

John

A cruising chute is normally used without a pole.
Even if poled out down wind the pole is not subjected to the loads that a spinnaker pole is so can be significantly lighter.

For a genoa the whisker pole is generally something around 1.25 times the J measurement although obviously depends on the boat and the sail. Spinnaker poles are typically closer to being equal to J.

You might need a slightly longer pole for a cruising chute... it being a bigger sail than a Genoa.

 

[Ric]

We have a Cruising Chute, which we use regularly. We've never used a Spiniker Pole, but have the oportunity to buy a 2nd hand Whisker Pole, adjustable 3.7-6.1m, which seems to be the right size for our boat.
Looking on the net Whisker Poles seem to be recommended for poling out a Genoa, but no mention is made of use with a Cruising Chute.
We've friends who use a Spiniker Pole to pole out their Chute dead downwind which makes a huge difference to its stability. Would a Whisker Pole be strong enough to use with a Chute or do we really need a fixed Pole?

John

I occasionally use my whisker pole to stabilise my cruising chute in light winds, or if there is a bit of swell causing the chute to collapse.

 

[Oscarpop]

We recently did the same thing and purchased a pole for both poling out the jib and the cruising chute.

It really does transform downwind sailing.

We have a telescopic pole which means it can be easily adjusted for our jib/chute/code 0.

it is also much less of a problem than using it to hold a spinnaker. no downhaul really needed.

There is a chap on here called Merlin who supplied and fitted all my kit at a very reasonable price.

Give it a whirl

 

[vyv_cox]

A cruising chute is normally used without a pole.
Even if poled out down wind the pole is not subjected to the loads that a spinnaker pole is so can be significantly lighter.

For a genoa the whisker pole is generally something around 1.25 times the J measurement although obviously depends on the boat and the sail. Spinnaker poles are typically closer to being equal to J.

You might need a slightly longer pole for a cruising chute... it being a bigger sail than a Genoa.

YM did something about this many years ago. I seem to remember that the recommendation was 1.5 x J for a cruising chute.

 

[Amulet]

"Whisker Pole with Cruising Chute?" - Yes, all the time. To the point where I wonder why I don't get a good old fashioned symmetrical spinnaker. I find the cruising chute much more manageable tacked on to the pole than any other way, and trip it to lower like a conventional spinnaker. I find that you do need both an uphaul and a downhaul on the pole to lock it in position - both to enable you to set the thing properly and also to avoid the pole skying, flailing about and knocking the residual brains out of the crew.

 

[aquaplane]

I was wondering about using a pole on the tack to take the tack forward and a little to windward. I would need a long pole to hold the clew out on my shute.

I hadn't considered using the pole like a spinaker pole, or the shute like a spinaker. For dead downwind I tend to go wing a wing.

 

[Oscarpop]

I think that the figure we worked from is 1 xJ for the jib ( 95%) blade and 1.25 J for the code 0/ chute.

we found a telescopic pole on e bay at £100 from selden

Can't recommend it enough as downwind in light airs it gave us an extra knot when goose winged.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I used a Cruising Chute extensively to cruise round mainland Britain, a bit of Europe and the all over the West Coast of Scotland. The yacht didn't have a pole and it was not missed. The whole point of the cruising chute is ease of handling compared to a spinnaker, hence no pole.

The owner did consider buying a pole but concluded that the number of times it would be useful (light winds, dead run) were not sufficiently frequent to justify the cost. Of more use is a set of light weight sheets for light winds.

If you want it could be useful but it's not necessary as I have experienced.

 

[pagoda]

I used a Cruising Chute extensively to cruise round mainland Britain, a bit of Europe and the all over the West Coast of Scotland. The yacht didn't have a pole and it was not missed. The whole point of the cruising chute is ease of handling compared to a spinnaker, hence no pole.

The owner did consider buying a pole but concluded that the number of times it would be useful (light winds, dead run) were not sufficiently frequent to justify the cost. Of more use is a set of light weight sheets for light winds.

If you want it could be useful but it's not necessary as I have experienced.

I'd agree with most of that. Most of the utility of a cruising chute is similar to any asymmetric on a dinghy. You will have a better sailing experience doing deep reaches and occasional gybes than a dead run I think. In light air - light sheets are well worth having. Our gennaker is twice the size of the genoa, so it's probably coming down at 10Kts, since we just cruise with 2 on board. Beyond that the thrill sort of pales a bit
Off the wind with 10Kts, with normal sails we'll get about 6-7 anyway.

My race-oriented elder son insists on using the spinnaker pole, but that's fine if you have a fore-deck hand available