Use this sailing calculation for planning or education when the vessel, units, reference directions, environmental conditions, and assumptions are explicitly known.

Elevation (deg)

Optional number in deg. Elevation of the pole above horizontal; zero is square, forty five degrees is the highest useful angle.

Pole length (m)

Required number in m. Overall length of the spinnaker pole.

The cited overview of Sailing supplies background for the terminology and domain context used by this tool.^[1]

Compute how high the outboard tip of a spinnaker pole sits above the mast attachment using pole length times the sine of the elevation angle. Inputs are interpreted exactly in the displayed units and the calculation returns the following fields without presentation rounding.

Pole tip height (m)

Returned number in m. Vertical rise of the pole tip above the mast attachment.

• Vessel design and loading, sea state, wind, current, tide datum, weather, chart accuracy, equipment, crew, and safety margins can make real conditions differ from a simplified result.
• Elevation must be at least 0.
• Elevation must be no greater than 45.
• Use finite inputs in the displayed units, preserve source measurements and assumptions, and independently verify consequential decisions.

Cross-check current charts, tide and weather services, instrument data, vessel manuals, and applicable navigation rules, and retain a conservative alternative plan.

• Vang Angle Calculator

  Compute the vang angle in degrees as atan of the mast attachment height over the boom attachment distance.

• Spinnaker Tack Height

  Estimate how high the spinnaker tack can be raised below a fixed full-hoist head position from the unused fraction of the luff length.

• Sector Search Leg Length

  Calculate the chord between successive radials of a sector search pattern as twice the radius times the sine of half the sector angle.