Originally Posted by Formula15
Does anyone have pics from their 5.8 spi setup? i have a spinnaker, and some windsurf masts for poles.


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I can't find any close-up photos of my set-up, but I pretty much copied the controls from the Capricorn manual.

The pole is just a stick of aluminum that I got from a local metal supply shop - saved a lot on shipping that way (it's 12.5 feet long). It is lashed to the underside of the NA foil, the foil is raised a couple of inches from stock to get the geometry right - because it's raised I have two lines from the center of the the foil to each tang to keep it from shifting side-to-side. The butt end of the pole is attached to the top of the dolphin striker (right under the main beam). Rather than attaching tangs to the bow, I just drilled holes in the bow.

The 5.8 is very forgiving, and carries a spin very well. I've never come close to pitch-poling in 3 years of racing the boat pretty hard. It's very fast off the wind - never had any problems putting time on Tigers downwind. My spin is a modern F18-style cut (custom made for the boat by Glaser). The older style kites are much larger, and if you have one, your mileage may vary.