I have part of an older Tornado catamaran, that I want to Turbo and add a spinnaker to. I was thinking a cheapish way to get it onto the water would be to get a Hobie Tiger, or some other type of F-18 spinnaker pole, snuffer system.
Is this feasable? How long is the F-18 pole in total?
All I can find is that it's max of 80 cm longer than the distance from the bow to the middle of the cross beam.
If it is feasable, and anyone has one, I would be interested.
Catamarans have Spinnacker Poles ... not bowsprits.
I started w/ a used 15' Carbon fiber windsurfer mast (I liked the tapered look vs a pipe). I cut it down to 14', removing it from the
butt
end. Take this
butt
end piece a split it lengthwise, attached w/epoxy a 12
section broken hotstick to one of the split half section vertically w/ gussets (trianglar supports for and aft) to make a
dolphin striker
. I used 1/8
Dynama attached to pad-eyes at either end and tensioned to produce pre-bend in the stick. I stuffed a
plug
3-4
into the butt end and filled w/
Marine-tex
. carved out the end to match a old H16 rudder gudgeon that I mounted on the front crossbar. Drilled a 3/8
hole side to side and used a cut-off Hobie rudder pin th attach the pole to the front crossbar through the
gudgeon
. I used 1/8
Dynama as rigging to hold pole in place as bridles and across to keep pole in-column. Adjust pole pre-bend so as pole is slightly bowed down when under load ... DO NOT ALLOW POLE TO INVERT ... It gets ugly fast if it does!!!
To make a snuffer hoop make a foam ring approximently 12-14
dia (one of those swimming things will work) cover/wrap w/epoxy and cloth ... mold to pole at appropiate midpoint ... have local sailmaker sew a
sock
...
There are some more details but that is basically it the crafty cheap way
Or you can just buy a 14' length of aluminum tube ie: pipe
Harry Murphey
H18mag/P19mx w/spin