This may mean needing both!I think Killarney has this right as far as the tradeoffs particularly for passage making.For me, and sailing with minimum crew (usually just wife and I) it's an issue of mitigating the least amount of stress (I ain't racing). Roll up the jib, attach pole to mast, attach pole to jib sheet at jib clew, ease out jib by pulling in the jib sheet. A boat can use a spinnaker pole with either symmetrical or asymmetrical spinnakers, but if a spinnaker pole is declared, the boat will be rated for an s-sail spinnaker area, whether or not she actually carries any s-sails. Does each have it's own type of Car? Whisker pole is to pole out the clew of a headsail when you are sailing deep downwind. No more work than an asymmetric out of a bag. The whisker pole (spinnaker pole) for a 40' boat is right at or over $2K. Spinnaker Poles are used to fly a Spinnaker. A properly sized and deployed whisker pole will allow the headsail to add considerable power and speed to downwind sailing. A spinnaker pole is typically of heavy construction (not necessarily of heavy weight) and is virtually always a fixed length. They work pretty well, but are a lot of work to put up and take down, even asymmetrical chutes are tricky and they are difficult to fly dead downwind. The 3"/2 1/2" diameter whisker pole on my 35' boat pretzeled in moderate force 4 conditions. For some reason when I bought the boat, the Car was missing. For what it is worth, sometimes sailing further but faster( not wing and wing) heading up a bit ( not using a pole) is better.This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our You also have swept back spreaders, right?If you have an asym, you can pole out the tack to do a bit better down wind if that is a needed thing just as one would a sym spin. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. You can have a whisker pole that is extendable or not. Done. Are they the same thing? Typically the Hunters have one jib so you could get away with a fixed length whisker pole ā€¦ Since you aren't worried about the boat's race rating as a cruiser, get the longest spinnaker pole that you can fit on the boat and still handle. It try to find Chuck from Ullman San Diego/Seattle, he is the on that explained it to me. With a crew of two in any kind of wind, it is a real trick to set any kind of pole because the person in the cockpit is usually handling the topping lift while the boat is on autopilot, and the foredeck person is yelling instructions while raising the pole car, inserting the sheet (best done when the sail is furled), trying not to fall overboard, etc. A table will be displayed of all models we have data for made by ā€¦ A spinnaker pole with a declared length not longer than 1.1*ā€™Jā€™ can be used as a whisker pole to trim headsails. Never really, as I sail mostly alone and flying a spinaker on a pole on our own is just hard work.Yeah, using the pole is a pain in the ass. You can reverse this when ready to take down pole. Josh Post 277,577 views. However, I think I should be calculating the length of the pole out at the height it is fixed on the mast?.A spinnaker pole is typically of heavy construction (not necessarily of heavy weight) and is virtually always a fixed length. I have a "Whisker Pole" and I am looking for a Car to attach the Whisker Pole to the front of my mast where there is a track. If you'll be cruising with it hoisted most all the time (living in its sock when not used), it's also a lot less work to deploy and use than rigging a whisker pole and resetting it all the time.