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Aspinnaker pole is aspar used insailboats (bothdinghies andyachts) to help support and control a variety ofheadsails, particularly thespinnaker. It is also used with other sails, such asgenoas andjibs, when sailingdownwind with no spinnaker hoisted, sometimes using a special light spinnaker pole called awhisker pole, possible since the load on the pole is very light on thispoint of sail.
The spinnaker pole is rigged to run from the base of themast,[1] where there is a special fitting for attaching one end of the pole, out towindward over the side of the boat. There, one of the controllines of whichever sail it is to be used with is run through a fitting on the other end of the spinnaker pole. This allows for more precise control of the corner of the sail to which the line is attached.
For a spinnaker, the line attached to the pole is theguy, or brace, and the corner is thetack. For other headsails, such as a jib, the line would be thesheet, attached to theclew.
An uphaul is a line run from the middle of the spinnaker pole up to ablock on the mast, and is used to support the weight of the spinnaker pole. Adownhaul orforeguy runs down so that the height of the pole is under positive control at all times.