hey nebbian,
glad to see your on your way. sailing clew first is a handy skill to have so practicing will have you sorted. it's difficult from here to give the right advice without seeing what is going on.

but a couple of things to try.

when sailing clew first in light winds you need to have your front foot pointing forward and sat either beside the mast or with your toes pushing into the mast and your foot on the centreline of the board. in very light winds you may need to put your front foot in front of the mast.

when sailing out clew first you need to anticipate the flip when changing from clew first to normal, your sail goes from powered to dead to powered. the stronger the wind and less board speed the harder it is to do.
as you flip the rig, keep your mast hand on the boom. then cross your hands and grab the boom on the new side with your spare hand and pull the sail towards the nose of your board past your face. if you fall backwards then the rig is to close to you. if you lose control of the sail you can just hold the boom near the mast until your ok again.

i am going to guess that you need to flip your sail a little bit earlier now that you have got the carve going a bit better. this is where you can experiment.

**(the idea with the clew first exit is it encourages you to transfer your body weight forward)**. i sail my 8.5m sail out of gybes planing on the formula board if i start to drop off the plane.

the sail flip when you are planing will occur earlier. you will feel the sail lose pressure when it is time to flip (if you sheet in on entry to the gybe). with a planing gybe you flip the sail when you are exiting on a broad reach. but you need to be planing or almost planing for the sail to be managable. the key to keeping planing is to remember to keep your body weight forward and over the centreline of the board with your inside foot weighting the downwind rail evenly. legs bent. pulling down on the boom can assist in keeping the board trimmed.

with planing gybes if you start to fall backwards then you are leaning in or back to far. just keep thinking weight forward, pull down on boom to pressure the mast foot, legs bent and aim to flip when exiting on a broad reach.

hope it helps a little more.

-jj

here is another that shows the sail flip well plus the body position entering the gybe.

http://www.simonhurrey.com/tuition/detail/carve_gybe_step_gybe/

keep hitting pause and play and look at the stance.

look at the initial setup and then look at the feet switch then sail flip.

notice with the sail switch, he clearly pulls the sail forward and across his body. same as on the old wallies. plus his feet are a fair way forward. he holds the clew first position long enough to power the rig again on the broad reach.

i think this is a great video to expain the move. the best that i have seen.

if you find you fall off the plane when exiting the gybe then hold the clew first position a little longer. but basically if you keep falling off the plane then it is because your body weight is to far back.

Hi Gestalt,

Thanks for all the advice!

As you said, that video shows the flip really well. From the article:

quote:

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Release the back hand and as the rig flips in any maneuver, the rig is bought violently forward to effectively pump the sail and prevent it from falling backwards which will stall the turn.

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Yarrr, that's what I wasn't doing. I was just releasing the clew hand and hoping that everything would just work... no matter how many times I read that about bringing the mast forwards before, it didn't sink in until now.
Also I'm completely ignoring the planing gybe. All I want is to be able to turn around without getting wet!! I've got the feeling that the flip will be achieved next session, I was sooooooo close yesterday. Bring on those northerlies!

NotWal: Yeah rub it in why don't you. Yep it's an awesome feeling when it works, good to know that there are still lots of ways to look silly after I've nailed gybing

no worries, sounds like you are pretty much there. glad to be of help.......

after the adrenalin rush the thing i like about windsurfing is the endless learning curve.

I cracked it today!!!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

First full gybe, sailed out clew first, then did the flip, and didn't fall off... then sailed away and did another one on the other tack! Ah am de mayn!! After a lot of walking the rig upwind to really get some distance between me and the shore, I linked up gybe after gybe, flipping like a pro, with a big silly grin on my face

The secret (for those who are close) is to pull the sail towards you with your mast hand as you release the clew hand. Then grab the mast with your old clew hand, grab the new side of the boom with your old mast hand, then move your other hand to the boom. Put a nonchalant expression on your face, and sail away like what you just did was nothing...

I am one happy gybin' super stylin' dood

quote:

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Nebbian, every time you grab the mast, you owe me a beer

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Errrr... why? Is it considered bad form? Or are you thirsty?

It's what the F2 trainer DVD recommends, and it seems easiest... I'm not that worried at the moment, as any dry gybe is a good gybe as far as I'm concerned

Practice makes perfect.

A flawed statement.

It should be " Perfect practice makes Perfect".

Do as Decrepit says and it is just as easy.
if your hand goes for mast, think " beer for Tony".

best winds
Tony L

hi guys,

i have to agree. try to leave the mast alone. (you will get blisters)

i think the f2 video should be torched or sold on ebay.

the advantage with boob to boom is that you can pull the rig towards the nose faster. well worth it in the end.

good luck nebbian, i think within a few sessions you will be cruising.

Another session today in light wind, 4 hours of figure-8's, now completing about 50% of those gybes... managed to change technique so I don't touch the mast, it actually seems more controllable if you grab the boom instead of the mast! However I'm not doing the cross over thing, the clew hand grabs the old side of the boom near the mast hand.

Not to worry, plenty of time to refine this and get the cross over happening.

Thanks to everyone for the responses, I don't know what I'd do without this forum

Good luck to Fourpaws and Harrow!

Actually did my first non planeing Gybe on my Aero today ! *alot tougher than the instructors board belive me :)* I was so stoked, I powered up out of it and took one hand off the boom and did a fist pump... Lost balance and did a face plant catapault. But came up smiling and laughing :)