hello,
the pole i used is the top half of a windsurfer mast. i never mesured it, but it sticks out past the rear beam about 6".
i weigh 160 and righted the TheMightyHobie18 twice by myself in light winds. it was tricky when the wind was lighter. something failed causing the capsize.
the trick was to tie the pole off at the daggerboard bungie attachment point. they explained to me on the old forum that because the hull has more bouancy forward the righting pole has more effect when tied off further forward. it took a while for me to wrap my mind around this concept because i looked at the leverage puzzle as if it were on land. in the water the bottom hull gets depressed as you pull on the top hull so it requires even more leverage to get the mast tip up high enough to right the boat. more of the energy gets used to lift the mast when pushing against a more boyant section of the hull.
the pole sticks out beyond the shroud and is comfortable to hang on, so the leverage is more than just tieing a line to the chainplate. you could fill a backpack with water to get more leverage i expect.
on another note you can't tie the front of the pole high for storage because a little slack is needed in the loop. that's why i bungied the pole up. also because of the curved beams the pole hits the middle of the tramp so the pole tips won't be able to touch the beams whilst stored under the tramp.
when righting your boat on the beach you can just lift the mast tip then walk down the shroud till the boat reaches it's balance point. if someone is there they can lower the top hull to the sand while you pull on the shroud.
hope this helps.
ps. i'd be careful testing the pole on the beach. if you get that top hull coming down at you and don't catch it some one or something could get hurt.
also when i reright on the water i get the mast pointed to wind so that i can climb around on the top hull w/o going turtle.