S/V Bagatelle Gin Pole Upgrade

After my last trip to go sailing in December of 2025 when I got the gin pole down on the ground I noticed that it was broken. Fortunately it didn't break while I was lowering the mast or we would have had a crisis.

When I built the pole originally I just grabbed a spare 2x4 I had on my wood pile to use as a pole and it wasn't weatherized in anyway it was just a standard 2x4 so 2 years of sitting out in the weather not being fully painted yielded this kind of condition. It as cracking at the pivot point.

Below you'll see the full length Gin pole, note the bend just past the winch

Below is the rot that occured beneath the winch, the cause of the break.

My quandary was how to repair it. I could replace the 2x4 with another 2x4 that's treated or I could replace it with a steel or aluminum beam that would not fail so quickly. I know that a steel pole 102 inches long would be really heavy at 46 pounds. Aluminum would be lighter at 15 pounds. wood would weigh in at 32 lbs. From this weight comparison aluminum was the best choice. The prices were a shocker:

  1. wood $3.25
  2. Aluminum $70
  3. Steel $90

After much thought I decided aluminum would be better, since it will probably Outlast me. So I decided to go ahead and buy the aluminum U channel, I ordered it cut to 102 inches.

So now I want to review the design a little bit. The idea of this gin pole is that you can break it down so you can store it on the boat while you are under the underway. When you need to drop the mast or raise the mast on on the trip, you can do so because you've got the gin pole with you. Which is why the winch is clamped on to the pole and not welded or bolted.

When I put this together I needed to think about this design concept and how it regulates the instalation of the winch. The U channel is a not a rectangle in cross section like a two by four, therefore I decided that the winch would go on the flat side of the U channel.


Starboard side of winch on aluminum pole

Port side of winch on aluminum pole

Since I was using aluminum and not wood all the screws that I used to attach the cleats and the hook and the pulleys to the gin Pole wouldn't work because they were wood screws. I went down to Ace hardware and got some self-drilling sheet metal screws. To attach all the parts. I also bought a diiferent hook, one that I could bolt on to the U channel

Winch Hook Pulley and Rope bend pulley

Winch Hook parking hook

Rope Termination Cleat

When I got done I have a durable Gin Pole. When it gets a little warmer, I'll take the boat out a again and Try it out.

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