Buy a ready made whisker pole. The middle size. A great piece of equipment to have on board. I have two. I would not bother with a gin pole for the mast on an M17. Fix a snatch block to the stemhead and tie a long line from the wire end of the jib halyard to a line through the snatch block and back to the sheet winch. Take a couple turns and have it ready. If you have help, more better, but if not, raise the mast with one hand and take up slack with the other. Keep raising and taking up slack. In no time at all, you will be able to pull or crank it all the way up, at which time you cleat off your line and ease up forward to pin the forestay. To lower the mast, reverse the process. On May 4, 2010, at 7:12 PM, Bruce Ward wrote:
Greetings, I fly a furling 135% head sail on my M17 and want to build a whisker pole to do double duty : a, use as a gin pole with mast raising, and b, as a down wind pole for the headsail. Any opinions regarding 1.0 versus 1.25 inch diameter or larger and your experiences would help me in complementing my rig. Thanks, Bruce
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