A new spinaker and two new poles is quite an outlay, if purchased over a couple of months which if either works best (if at all). A new kite on old poles or old size kite on new poles?

Personnally, I would sort the poles out and then ask around for a second hand kite. It will be easier to fly the old (smaller) kite from the longer poles than the other way round (we did this last year). You will probably find that there will be a few second hand sails on the market in the next few weeks as the top guys get their set-up sorted for their 2008 campaigns! Alternatively, try those in the sail development wings of the sailmakers and see if they have a development sail available for next to nothing.

Poles first.

I Have a Repaired big kite I could sell you for £100, new sacombe 2006, It was torn at Rutland open aprox 8" L shape, repaired at Alverbanks.

Poles first definitely. You can fly the older rules kites off the 2.3M poles, dont sheet hard, keep them full, pole a bit more forward that you might do with the full size kites

Theres a few folk selling theirs if you ask around.

Thanks for the responses, people are selling poles or kites? If you have either to sell drop me a line I have been advised of one other spinny thus far from another thread, if the price is right I am looking to purchase.

Definately go the long poles/small kite route.  Long poles do not come up for sale very often but if you search the forum there have been several threads in the last couple of years with suggestions as to where you can get the carbon tube to make new poles at good prices but bear in mind that carbon has gone up with the oil price increase.  Get the poles sorted and then look around for a good second hand kite.  You will also need to raise the location of the take-off point for the uphauls - Dan Alsop has a good tip on how to do this in the library on this web.

Do you want single or twin poles?

Single pole will work out a lot cheaper, quite apart from the pole itself there is a lot less string in the set up and equally fewer fittings!  On an older boat this is a serious alternative.

I have a carbon single if you want it.

GGGGGGGGGG

I would prefer to stay with a twin pole setup as my crew finds it so much easier than a single system especialy when gybing.

Batt Sails website has a list of cheap secondhand sails too.

If you don't mind alloy poles you can get the tube much cheaper from a metals supplier. Make sure it's 1.5 inch tube though becasue the 1 inch will bend too much (Ask Steve Watson!).

You can also get carbon tube cheaper than the chandlers, but you have to watch the internal diameter which varies from supplier to supplier and also the length as some only go up to 2 metres. Polyfibre in Aston are local.

Forgot to mention, it's not totally necessary to use anodised alloy either especially if you don't do much sea sailing. Andrew mills used some that weren't anodised and managed to not break them!

Thanks Chris, this was something I had been discussing with someone else who is advising me, is 32mm external diameter the most common? if so what wall thicknes would you advise? most of the triggers etc would appear to be 22mm internal diameter so I guess thats where the step down comes in. Or is 25mm external diameter with 22mm internal and 1.5mm wall ok? (That seems a little thin to me.)

You want the bigger size ends. The smaller ones are not strong enough.

Thanks to all that have responded to my posts, I am now sorted and looking forward to assembling my New Rules Spinaker kit.