Is Mine Bigger Than Yours?

The pole on the right is the John Mast pole that came with the boat. The one in the middle is one my father made and called his "high performance pole." I guess it's not the size of the pole, but the magic in it? And the one on the left in Wilson's big assed pole. Dave had joked about his pole being bigger than mine a little while back, but I didn't give too much thought... until now.

In the second race last Sunday, Wilson's crew dropped their pole in the water just in front of us before the leeward mark rounding. I saw it, hiked out over the side, snagged it and said, "Hey guys, I'm gonna need a little help with this." Patrick was stunned... said something to affect of 'Where did you get that?"

As I lifted it out of the water, one handed, it seemed to never end. And as it came to the surface it got really heavy too. I began thinking... was this the Wilson's big downwind secret? Did I just happen to stumble upon it? Now you'd think after seeing the boat behind you pick up your pole in 25 + knots that you might... oops blow the jib sheet and make it look like a mistake that you got passed. Seems like the nice thing to do, right? No such luck. Wilsons' covered us the whole way back to the finish line. Too bad there wasn't another lap around...
... then got to thinking, are there any class rules about the length of your pole? There is in the Knarr fleet which is what raised our suspicions. Turns out there is no length maximum and unfortunately... it's legal. Sure would make the final results of the season better for me.

The Wilson family are a class act. At last night's final Wednesday Evening race of the season, Don was gracious enough to bring over a very nice bottle of wine as a thank you...

Anytime Don... those things are expensive and I'm sure you'd do the same for me.