How long (in general) are spinnaker poles on Tornado's? (I know they can vary.)


A gentleman is going to give me a Carbon mast from a windsurfer, that is broken about 3 feet from the bottom, so I am curious how long the good section of the mast needs to be

Thanks

I'd suggest checking the Tornado class rules for the max pole length.

Be cautious about using the upper section of winsurfing masts, even carbon. I was using about 12 to 13 feet on 18' cats, measured from the orginal, full diameter base, cutting the excess off the upper skinnier end, and that works fine. But when I started pushing 14' on the SC20, I snapped 3 windsurf masts near the tip before going to something else.

Dave 509 276 6355

Min diameter is 38mm. Max distance from leading edge of beam to tack of spinnaker is 4000mm. Typically poles are slightly longer than 4 meters with the block for the tack of the spinnaker slightly less then 4000mm to avoid measurement issues.

I have used a cut down tapered carbon sailboard mast for 4 years without issue. It is however no where near the class
minimum weight.

Class rule states 4000mm from the front of the main beam to the "bearing surface" (ie. forward side of the block sheave) for the spinnaker tack line. There is no "official" pole length limit. The minimum pole diameter is 38 mm (no maximum limit). Min weight for pole, snuffer, stays is 2.5 kg(?).

I just had the exit block (a harken) pull through the ~1mm thick carbon windsurfer mast I currently run as a pole. Re-wrapped the 6 inches at the pole end with Unicarbon, cut an exit opening and placed a 3/8" dia. solid carbon rod vertically through both sides of the pole tip.







I lashed a hiload harken bullet block to the rod. This allows the block some freedom to move left/right as it gets pulled upwards through the opening when the sail is set. I did this because I noted line chaffing with the normal exit block fro mthe off-angle loading of the line. The rod protrudes out the top side of the pole about 1/2". This acts to locate the pole end stays that get looped over the pole end.

Allright! Thanks very much for the help.

Looks like my new (broken) carbon "spinnaker" pole will work!