The blocks forward for the spinnaker are attached to the aft ring on the stanchion base. We have not had any problems and as you can tell from the video we have tested it out pretty well. We have added plastic backing plates to all the stanchions so they don't rip out of the deck.
You can see the port spinnaker sheet lead at about 30-35 seconds on the video and again just touching the lifeline cushions from around 1 minute on, then the after guy on the port side at the very end of the video.
I had not watched that video for a while. Similar conditions this spring at the NOOD which I hople we handled better but no video. Watching today it seems like the knock down after the gybe lasted longer than the 30 seconds it did. I had the same helpless feeling as I did at the time. You see my good friend and long time shipmate Barry at the mast trying to release the vang within seconds of the boom hitting the water which is what finally allows the boat to pop back up and the rudder get back in the water. I will say he has more experience doing this than anyone I know.
I would have expected to have the pole further back than it was on starboard tack in those conditions. So being curious I looked up my wind records from nearby Thomas Point Light and our GPS track. Our course and the course to the turning the mark was 170. The wind was 20 knots at 320. That means we were sailing 30 degrees higher than dead down wind on starboard. After gybing at the mark our the course to the next mark was 10 degrees above DDW on port at 130 which explains why the pole is further back near the end of the video closer to where I would expect it to be in those conditions.
