Catalina 350 International Association

I just acquired a whisker pole for those times when going downwind and need to keep the jib from flopping. I know the best option is to attach a track to the mast for the pole to ride and to store it there. That happens to be a bit dear at this time, so I want to use a padeye while I save my many thousands of pennies.

I did go to WM and found that their options don't have the right curve to the base to fit well on the mast. Someone out there must have a solution, I'm hoping.

Thanks in advance.

I had the same results when Looking for a pad eye to fit the curve of the mast. I ended up with a small section of track with a moveable pad eye on it. I bought it used at a nautical resale store. It was pretty simple to drill a few holes, tap them, and screw in the bolts.
To hold the whisker pole, I centered it on the second Stanton from the bow, and installed a single pole holder there. I installed the pole holder as low as I could get it. Then attached the ends of the pole to the third station and the bow pulpit. If you look at the bow section of the boat, you'll see that this is a long straight run, perfect for the pole, because it is not in the deck area, not in the way at all. This set up has worked well for me for years.

Hint: install the pole pad eye higher than you think, error to the high side.

Bill on Triumph

Hi. Planning to do the same.

Any issues w bolts intruding deep into the mast, damaging the main?

Thanks.

The main rides in its own channel within the mast. You'd have to go pretty deep and through another interior wall to get to the main. What might happen is the lines running up the mast could get chafed from a deep bolt. I ended up using stainless rivets to install the pad eye, liberally coating them with 5200 before installing them.

The main rides in its own channel within the mast. You'd have to go pretty deep and through another interior wall to get to the main. What might happen is the lines running up the mast could get chafed from a deep bolt. I ended up using stainless rivets to install the pad eye, liberally coating them with 5200 before installing them.

No issues. Just keep the length of the bolt close to the thickness of the mast wall so it doesn’t interfere with lines/wires inside. Drill and tap using machine screws and Locktite. I don’t recommend metal screws.

SS machine screws 1-2 thread longer than thickness of padeye plus mast thickness and use something like this to bed the screws:

https://www.tefgel.com/contain.php?param=tefgel_infor