Building a carbon fibre spinnaker pole

Colin King aims for light weight and saves himself £1,500

- Colin King

The trend for asymmetric cruising spinnakers is growing but there are still a great many boats up to 35ft in length-like my Contessa 32-that use symmetrical sails for cruising or racing, and you'll need a pole for these and to pole out a genoa.

So why use a carbon fibre pole? Contessa 32 Class Rules for racing stipulate a maximum pole length of 3,868mm, and other boats of similar length are likely to have poles of approximately the same length.

Traditional aluminium poles are quite heavy, but carbon fibre poles would typically be 40% lighter-not all of us have a gorilla on our foredecks to move a heavy pole around!

Why build your own carbon fibre pole?

A bit of research showed that typical carbon fibre poles up to 4m long would cost around £2,500, whereas the cost of purchasing a bare pole plus end fittings and other items such as lines for bridles, release line and protective lacquer would typically be no more than £1,000. And it looked like assembly could be undertaken by anyone with some DIY skills and a basic tool kit.

Materials