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Fly Away jib pole - Pro\'s
 Pro’s & Con’s: All the photos are in the photo section marked as Fly Away Jib StickI’m sure most of the Ent fleet is wondering if the Fly Away Jib Pole is a good idea, how much it costs and will it really make that much difference to the boat speed. In this report: I will show you the process of building the Jib Stick, my thoughts and the testing. First of all I phoned round all of the main chandlers, to check on availability, price and knowledge of the pole. I went with Pinnell & Bax. They supply plenty of poles to the National 12 fleet, which has currently been using the poles for some time. They had nifty little secrets, which I will explain later for the build of the pole. I’m sure the other chandlers are busy builder their own kits. I also researched the length of the pole as many sailors have been using them throughout the season. Many people were using 1.5metres pole in length, which was found to be a bit short. So I have opted for 2m. I may even cut down to 1.8 as I think this is the magic number for our pole. More sailing may prove otherwise. The pole does look really complicated at first look but with a little explanation this process is really easy. It’s simply a kicker for you jib off wind and a goosewing specialist on the run. Easy to use and practical. I have also been told the pole only causes little disruption to flow of the wind sailing upwind, Will have to find out if this true, again not sure. The building, (in true Ikea destrustions) many Enterprise sailors don’t want to screw cleats into our lovely decks. Quite right too, we need another arrangement I have come up with a cheap, secure and doesn’t go near that lovely deck way of connecting the cleat. I bought a white plastic chopping board from M & S for under £5, 2.5% vat was knocked off, lol. I cut the tough plastic to the shape of two Mylar mast steps. I cut a hole out, for the mast to fit in and drilled holes for the screws to connect with step and the deck. On the other side I connected a Swivel 360 degrees Deck Eye SML Cleat (RF67) at around £40. You can get cheaper but won’t be as good. Be careful, as some chopping boards are only 5mm thick. I have used 10mm. Marks & Spencer, they will have a shortage I’m sure, lol. Photo of the plastic connected to the Mylar step and cleat attached. You can buy Carbon looking plastic sheets, which is as nearly as expensive as carbon. I have only found it in 4mm sheets. The other bits I left to the chandlers, one carbon pole 2m (£144.60) with fittings can use aluminum pole. Eye Mount (R2850) £1.94, 20mm dynamic cheek block (HA2026), £10.25, 5mm - 5m of elastic, and Excel D12 Red 3mm - 3m £5.82 and 3mm –5m yellow sheet. Total price of £212.60 inc vat. The great thing is with this kit all the hard work is done. No connecting the rope through the pole, little drilling and attach to the mast. When attaching to the mast, you will need a drill, rivet gun and patience. Drill the rivet in the middle of the spreader and attach the dynamic cheek block with a new rivet. There will be a rope spliced in the cleat, which you tie tight at the bottom of the mast. At the bottom of the mast drill the rivet at the centre. If there isn’t one make 5mm-drill hole, rivet the Eye mount and tie of your D12 red 3mm rope. As you can see in the photograph’s fig1 block with D12 rope spliced through the block, the block is attached to the centre of the spreader bracket. Fig2 bottom end of the jib pole with 3mm sheet flowing through the centre. Fig3 Top end of the pole (HA421) Harken thru deck block £24.01 attached to pole by drilling and jigsaw. Attach yellow sheet through the block this will become your downall. Figure 4 eye mount connected to mast by rivet red D12 tied tight as you can. The top end of jib pole, The ring at the end of the pole is attached to the D12 3mm red sheet. The pole can slide up and down. Black elastic for the fly away, which goes through the pulley and tied off at the bottom of the mast or foot strap bracket. That’s basically it. Just rig your boat and tie the elastic off at the bottom of the mast or the foot strap bolt in the boat. The longer the elastic length can travel the better the pole will fly away. Tie you downall from the end of the pole to you jib using a bowline and tread the other end through the cleat and tie a bowline off on your foot strap. This means you wont loose the rope. I do feel you can make the pole cheaper by yourself, I would say a self-build would cost £150.00 pounds. You are ready to use your pole. I have found out the pole doesn’t work in force 0-1. In light winds I would disconnect. Again in a force 0 the jib doesn’t really work either. On Sunday 15th January I used the pole for the very first time. Does it improve your sailing, is it turning an Ent into a hybrid. Will it wreck the Enterprise fleet? Well everybody at the club had a good look as I performed the magic of the pole. They also asked me how much it all cost. They did like it and understood the method very simply. Most sailors said it was expensive to build and wont be buying or building one. A few sailors were asking if it was legal to sail with. I explained you could only sail at club events and Open Meetings at the moment. I crewed in the first race to see what effect it had on the shape of the jib. I found on a tight to broad reach you pull the pole on the clew of the jib pulling the leach down. You don’t want to over do it as you can put the brake on the jib very easily. I also found the jib had extra power getting you up on a plane and keeping you on longer, even on a small lake. The run, we had only one run on the course that we sailed and I found it easy to pull out and release the pole as we jibed for the following buoy. The only problem I had it was pulling on the sail making it curl harshly. I really did feel the pole was to long. I do feel 1.8m is the magic number. Before I cut the pole I will try again. In the second race I was the helm. My crew couldn’t get his head round the extra sheet. So he didn’t use it much. when we did we plane so much longer than previous. Summary, It’s expensive. I feel only the people who sail at the National events will buy one and Club sailors won’t. Will it wreck the enterprise fleet, no it won’t, its only pole. Will it improve your sailing, yes it will. Is it turning the Ent into a hybrid, a little but we already have an ally mast, bigger sails and stiffer boats from the original. Does a pole make that much difference? Steve Blackburn E21350 & E21333 |
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