Spinnaker Poles - what's that all about t

Ok this may seam a dumb question, but when were spinnaker poles invented for dinghies. I've seen photos of boats taken in the early 50s doing really weird stuff with their spinnakers. On a broader note, when did spinnakers generally start being used (with or without poles)? Where 1930s Int 14s using them?

Just wunderin.....

i have done that before.

not intentionally tho

dosent work very well

Originally posted by JimC What you've got in that photo is spinnakers being set inside the jib rather than outside. The reason this used to be done has always escaped me!

To me it looks like they just rigged the kite up wrong

Some old class rules prohibited leading the spinnaker outside the forestay, leading to the way of setting shown in Norbert's pic.

This was, apparently (if I remember correctly) partly because that meant no one could cut a very flat "spinnaker" which could be used upwind in light winds. At least one Aussie class used to have such sails.

Also without kites and with baggy old sails, and with flow being directed into the genoa, thinking was that the setting the whole kite to windward of the genoa could actually be more efficient. As late as the late '50s, French 505s were doing it like those FDs.

With baggy old sails and traps being rare, it was hard to carry a kite on a reach anyway in those days.