Poles apart: another chapter in the Chronicles of Acushla in Abersoch

A suggestion was made to me by one of the Scottish contingent that our flyaway jib pole arrangement needs to change to do away with a string down the mast that retains the mast end of the pole. The rational is that it puts too much pressure on the clew tightening up the leech of the sail too much.

I think you can see the before and after effect on these two pictures taken recently. The leech on the second does look a bit less tight. I certainly worked better.

I have to admit that I had noticed that when reaching it was difficult to get the very top telltails on the jib to fly and often the top leech tell tail was not streaming as it should. No matter how the pole and jib sheets are adjusted it never really set satisfactorily.
So for the last days racing we changed it and it definitely improved the setting of the jib.

Hat doffed to the fine chap from Scotland who made that recommendation, thank you for that top tip.