Symmetric pole systems

Tried single-ending our Laser 2 pole - great except that it made heavy weather gybes even more iffy.

I recall that a lot of the top L2's used to attach the uphaul to a bridle connected to each end of the pole. This clearly eliminated pole-bending - which is a major problem with the bendy L2 pole (we solved that by using a (strictly speaking illegal) 505 pole), I was never clear how they stowed the pole alongside the boom without clipping it to something at the mast end, unclipping again when hoisting, which would be a faff; also, the downhaul would need thinking about.

We tried the ramp and loop, but it is always necessary to make sure that the rope is in the ramp slot when pushing out, and it's sometimes reluctant to come out again when taking the pole in. Then again, sometimes it jumped out on its own - the loop has to be just right, then it wears through...

The original hook system was pretty unsatisfactory, though, and we ended up with Jim C's keyhole on the uphaul-downhaul arrangement, with a lump for it to butt up against in the middle of the pole (* we used a plastic bullseye fairlead for want of anything better). It's a great system if you just want to hoist or drop - you don't have to consider the uphaul-downhaul at all - just push the pole out or bring it in. To gybe, twist the pole to get the bullseye the other side of the keyhole, then push out, end for end.

On an earlier boat we had a sort of amalgam of the ramp and keyhole methods, wherein the keyhole fitting was held between two lumps (bullseyes) in the middle of the pole when deployed. This had the benefit that gybes were easier, but you had to twist the keyhole into/out of  place every hoist/drop. Overall worse than the simpler one-lump system.

As Jim says, it's not perfect, but the keyhole + one-lump is the best I've used.