PART 3 AND PART 4 : CONDUC T OF A RAC E AND OTHE R R EQUI R EMENTS 273 R U L E 5 5 . 2 — S P I N N A K E R P O L E S ; WH I S K E R P O L E S


Only one spinnaker pole or whisker pole shall be used at a time except when gybing. When in use, it shall be attached to the foremost mast.


R U L E 5 5 . 3 — S H E E T I N G S A I L S No sail shall be sheeted over or through any device that exerts outward pressure on a sheet or clew of a sail at a point from which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck, except:


(a) a headsail clew may be connected (as defined in The Equipment Rules of Sailing) to a whisker pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set;


(b) any sail may be sheeted to or led above a boom that is regularly used for a sail and is permanently attached to the mast from which the head of the sail is set;


(c) a headsail may be sheeted to its own boom that requires no adjustment when tacking; and


(d) the boom of a sail may be sheeted to a bumkin.


R U L E 5 5 . 4 — H E A D S A I L S A N D S P I N N A K E R S For the purposes of rules 54 and 55 and Appendix G, the definitions of ‘head- sail’ and ‘spinnaker’ in The Equipment Rules of Sailing shall be used.


Note that this rule does not require that a spinnaker pole be used at all when flying a spinnaker! The only pole requirements are in rule 55.2. In other words, you can only use one pole at a time; and when it is “in use,” i.e., projecting the spinnaker or headsail outboard, it must be attached to the mast. With no requirement to use a pole, boats are free to do “gybe-sets” and


“floater-drops.” In both of these maneuvers, the spinnaker is set and drawing with no pole attached. In other words, a boat can legally gybe around the windward mark, set her spinnaker, fill it, and sail on down the leg with no pole. And likewise, when coming into a leeward mark, a boat can legally remove her pole and sail for as long as she chooses before lowering her spinnaker.


“So can a crew member lean out over a boat’s lifelines to hold the spinnaker guy after the pole has been removed?”


Yes, but only “briefly.” Rule 49.2 (Crew Position; Lifelines) forbids competitors from leaning their torsos out over the lifelines “except briefly to perform a


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