I recently bought my first yacht - 1980s Nantucket 31. It came without a spinnaker, but all the rigging appears to be present for a kite, including spinnaker pole, jockey pole, sheets, halyard, and appropriately placed turning blocks. The only thing I'm uncertain about is the pole rigging. The pole has only one loop on wires so that the loop will be about 80cm above the pole when attached to the topping lift (which is already rigged in the mast) but I'm wondering whether there should be a rig to hold the spinnaker pole down... In my dinghy racing days (30 yrs ago), we only had a topping lift but had a barber hauler on each side through which the sheets passed. When setting the kite, the barber hauler on the guy would be cleated in and the one on the sheet would be let loose. On a yacht, how is the pole held down?

You should have barber haulers on a Nantucket, as well. The big issue is whether the boat is set up for dip-pole gybing or end-for-end. Most Half Tonners went end-for-end, in which case you should have a bridle for the topping lift and a bridle for the downhaul as well.

Dip-pole gybe boats normally had a "bell end" on one end of the pole and a "parrot beak" on the other. End-for-enders had "parrot beaks" each end. A dip-pole boat had the downhaul on the outboard end of the boom, most of the time. You can dip-pole on a parrot beak but it doesn't work as smoothly. Dip pole boats have a sheet AND a brace on each clew.

So if we get some more info on your pole, we can get enough info to look further.

Yeah as Chris said, two different styles of gybing defining the pole setup. I would say if you have a bridle from each end to a central ring then you're set up for end for end gybes. In this case there should be a reciprocal bridle hanging under the pole for the kicker.

If you say where you are I'm sure there's a seabreezer local that can help.

Or you can hybrid like some of the old one tonners

End for end but to separate brace

Yes as above for that size yacht would expect kite pole end for end gybing with downhaul on the pole as well as the topping lift, and a brace and sheet on each clew unless in light winds or you have a muscle bound and experienced fwd hand. See below 3 photo sequence for port to stbd gybe - 1st photo grab new stbd brace before gybe, 2nd photo mainsail is amidships as we gybe from port to stbd just after the stbd brace is put in the parrot beak with both red kite sheets keeping the kite filled and the pole is being wrestled around to get the stbd end fwd and the port end inboard at the same time freeing the old port brace out of that parrot beak and have it secured to the kite ring fitting on the mast - nearly there in 3rd photo. Topping lift and downhaul apparent in all photos. Easy when you say it fast............needs relevant co-ordination from foredeck adventure land to cockpit fantasy land. Significant potential for it to go pear shaped - best to practice in light winds and open waters. We have barber haulers on the kite sheets for adjustment running square (tighten bbhauler) or shy (ease bbhauler), but the braces go through fixed pulleys on the toerail just fwd of the shrouds then aft to a pulley then the winch.

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Chris 249 said..
You should have barber haulers on a Nantucket, as well. The big issue is whether the boat is set up for dip-pole gybing or end-for-end. Most Half Tonners went end-for-end, in which case you should have a bridle for the topping lift and a bridle for the downhaul as well.

Dip-pole gybe boats normally had a "bell end" on one end of the pole and a "parrot beak" on the other. End-for-enders had "parrot beaks" each end. A dip-pole boat had the downhaul on the outboard end of the boom, most of the time. You can dip-pole on a parrot beak but it doesn't work as smoothly. Dip pole boats have a sheet AND a brace on each clew.

So if we get some more info on your pole, we can get enough info to look further.

Thanks Chris. The pole is double-ended "parrot beak" similar to what I had on my Cherub in the late 80s, so gybing is going to be either end-to-end if it's light or drop kite and reset if desired when it's a little windier. (But that's a bit down the track cos my partner is a complete novice sailer, and there's no point pushing her too hard!)

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Jethrow said..
Yeah as Chris said, two different styles of gybing defining the pole setup. I would say if you have a bridle from each end to a central ring then you're set up for end for end gybes. In this case there should be a reciprocal bridle hanging under the pole for the kicker.

If you say where you are I'm sure there's a seabreezer local that can help.

Hey Jethro! I'm in Hervey Bay.

Hi alanfw
If you've only got one bridle (the wires with the ring), that will probably be the bottom of the pole, for the kicker/downhaul. Is there a saddle on the other side of the pole near the middle, or holes where a saddle used to be?
Up to a certain size, spinnaker poles sometimes only have a saddle on the top side because the topping lift is mostly just holding up the weight of the pole before the kite fills. Once the kite fills all of the pressure is pulling the pole up, hence the need for the stronger bridle setup under the pole. ... two bridles are better, though