Mast track and whisker pole

In my PacCup experience, there has always come a time when flying the spinnaker just isn't practical.  Either the sea state, wind, crew status or all of the above dictate it's better to go with white sails.  Of course when you're in this mode you generally want to point directly at Hawaii, which usually means close to dead down wind.  That means you want to be able to wing out the head sail so that you can project the maximum sail area.  This can be a very stable and fast mode of sailing, with a great VMG.  In order to set up in this fashion you need a pole (either a whisker pole or spinnaker pole) to hold out the head sail on the opposite side from the main sail.  Being a J boat with an asymmetrical spinnaker and bow sprit, we don't have this setup. We were able to pick up a Forespar 12'-22' adjustable whisker pole and installed 1.25" t-track on the forward edge of the mast where we could place the ring to attach the inboard end of the whisker pole.  This is where you get really good at tapping 5/16" holes (12 of them) to attach the t-track to the mast.

Good to go...