And got clobbered by the other boats on the course. First two races were really bad! I need to get out there more often.

Last two races I was the first boat to weather, a hobie 20 and a tornado were sailing. But got hammered sailing downwind without a spinaker.

19 views and no one has noticed! LOLMAO
hahahahhaha who will be the first?

Well, your spinnaker pole isn't meant to be that shape, is it?

Has someone got the matching hole in the side of their boat?

Paul

What's up with that limp-dick spin pole? You out of Viagra? What did you hit? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

lol ahhahaha didnt hit anything, just that spin poles arent made to pull boats around. LMAO!

I did not read that in the instructions manual.

It looks like maybe there was some corosian already in there from that hole on top, or did you have some previous bending of the pole? You sail it mostly in salt water, right? How about putting a 1 foot long sleeve over it at that point, when you replace it? Carbon is not allowed, correct? I was thinking about a windsurfer mast or something instead of another thin aluminum pole.

Run the pole through a stainless ring below the bridle instead of drilling holes in the middle of the pole for rivets. Similar to what is attached.

My I-17R used a ring that had three eyelets welded on at 12, 4, and 8 o'clock for the guy wires. It also had heat shrunk rubber on the pole in the area where the ring made contact.

Nice idea! I saved the image to see who and where can I get this done. I love it. Thank you very much.

Been doing it like that for 3 years now, no problems.

I do manouvre my boat with the spi pole, it is my preferred handle, but then I leave the halyards attrached to eachother and tensioned while moving the boat about by the pole. That way you can pull down on the pole without bending or breaking it. Robi clearly pulled down on the pole when its tip was insupported in the vertical plane. Ring or no ring it would have bend or broken anyway. Ask the other who have learned the hard way

Wouter

Folks,
I have a slot as well as the rivets in my pole. The saddle is on the inside with the top poking through the wall of the pole.
I always use my pole as a handle to move my boat around.
With the lines attached the pole just goes into compression when I lift the boat by it.
I've had no problems and expect no problems.

Regards,
Phill

That picture was taken from the Nacra/Inter assembly manual (http://nacra.us/nacra/17,18,20%20Manual.pdf). I thought it was pretty slick on my I17R: you could rig the ring without the pole in the way and then just slide the pole in. Of course, I had the old carbon end-pole/2-patch snuffer system - things are probably totally different now.

The pictured part appears to be in Performance Catamaran's parts catalog ("pole holder ring" ?) but I doubt it would work well in your application for numerous reasons such as pole diameter differences and the fact that you use rope (not wire) guys.

I bet that wouldn't have happened on an F-17...

Negative Wouter sorry to say you are way off. The boat was rigged, I beached it after a race. I started pulling a bit onto the sand and she gave way. I just finished sailing, so the pole was fully supported. I had to take the pole and spin off to continue racing. This happened when we all beached to avoid some incomming weather.

"I bet it wouldn't happen on an Inter 17..." because the Inter 17 uses a much fatter, carbon pole with no holes drilled in it at the mid point. With the very thin walled alum. poles, and with stailess steel attached right at the mid point (max load, bending moment area) I would be very carful moving it around using the pole as a handle. Robi, are you sure someone (crew) didn't hang on the pole one time when it was on it's side after a flip?

I once had a new crew hanging onto mine after a pitchpole and if I didn't have such a large, thick and stiff pole, it would have broken in half I'm sure. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> it's true about my pole, ask his wife! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

LOL, nah Tim, I was sailing Uni, no crew to blame this time, except myself. hahahahha

Most boats have the spin pole a good distance below the bridle junction, often using a vertical strut to support a lowered jib tack. Your photo of the I17 has the pole touching the bridle junction with this cool ring-thing. So which is it, is the pole quite high or is the bridle junction lower than on other boats?


[/quote]

I just posted the first picture of a ring I found in the assembly manual. It was either on a Nacra 20 or a Nacra F18 (not sure which).

Here is a picture of what the ring looked like on my I17R. I don't know if the new mid-pole snuffers look the same.

That ring won't work on F16's as we have jibs that go all the way down to the spi pole, to support that you'll need a stiff strut.



Right !

Nacra Inter 18 has that setup too and it didn't prevent the pole from collapsing when they pulled down on the spi pole tip when it was unsupported too.

Wouter

Sorry Robi,

If you boat was fully rigged then the pole will not have been supported fully in the vertical plane when pushing down on the pole end. Even slight downward forces (something the spi NEVER excerts on the poles tip while sailing) will lead to high bending moments at the bridle. It is all about leverage. The fact that the spi doesn't produce these forces while sailing is the reason why the pole is not designed to handle such loads. And if you didn't do it this time then it was done in past initiating the fracture. It is really the only way to weaken or break the pole.

The repair however is equally simple.

The breakage is clean. Find an alu tube section that has an inner diameter that is just larger then the outer diameter of the pole. Make a sleave from that of about 1 foot length. Slide it over the spi pole and have it overlap the breakage. Then rivet the sleave into place with two rivets. Check alignment and fix the pole in that position properly and then lay down three small rows of rivets one on bottom and two on the side halve way between top and side. About 6 rivets on each side of the breakage will be enough. I've done repairs with less and it worked but better to do it right.

Wouter

Those eyestrap holes are to small to be of significant importance unless the pole is used in a way that it is not designed for.

Truly I've seen breakages at exactly the same point with other means of attachments. This isn't related to the hole but the fact that the bending moment is biggest right under the bridle support point. There is about 2 meter leverage between tip and bridle attachement point. With the pole being about 35-40 mm diameter the force magnifying effect is 50 - 60 times the push down force on the end. That is alot.

Give me a Inter-17 and I'll proof it to you guys. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Wouter

That pole looks like it was already broke before you used it to move the boat. That rivet has made the pole weak in at that point.