I have a Nacra F18 with a spinnaker and front snuffer. While sailing in about 15 knots on a broad reach and moderate ocean swells (3-4 ft), I decided to use the main and jib only, surfing the offshore ocean swells. It would have been ideal conditions for my spinnaker, but I just felt like surfing the waves without it.

After about 2 minutes, I accidently had my snuffer do an impression of a pelican scooping its beak into the water. The front of the snuffer somehow got underwater. This caused the snuffer pole to break in half.

Since I am new to spinnaker sailing, I was not aware that this could be a problem. In the future, I will be very aware of the potential for this to happen. You should be too.

The good news was that back at the dock a sharp-eyed friend noticed that the broken pole was the same as the upper section of a Laser mast, which he was throwing away. I primed it, painted it flat black, sawed it to fit and it works like the original!