On the weekend I was in ~25knot winds, riding a 139lt board with a 5.3 sail. Whilst in the harness and footstraps and planning I am having trouble turning into the wind. I am well powered and when I tilt the sail I still go straight, or even slide sideways sometimes. When I slide it is weird – the board feels fine and it doesn’t slide out, the board would just get pushed sideways when I try to turn and then straighten up after 40 or 50 mtrs. The only way I could manage to turn was to lean back far enough to get a bit of a body drag happening and reduce speed and the board would turn – not the best method I’m sure!

I have a Shallow 410 FRN but the board also came with a R13 Race NR 480 fin. Should I be change to the longer fin to regain the turning control? Am I overpowered? Do I need more down and out haul? Any assistance appreciated.

All above being said – this was the best session ever!! Well in the few months I’ve been windsurfing anyway. The feeling is awesome going so fast, I can see how you can do some serious injuries to your knees and ankles as speed though. I came off a few times really hard and cained my feet but I managed to get them out of the straps without damaging myself too bad, luckily.

Juzz, agree with nebbian, re don’t use the sail to control, its foot control from there on in. First time I got into both straps, I just cranked up in speed, felt great. However when I tried the old sail bit for control, all I did was close the gap, or sheet in and just went faster. In the end I had to drop my body into water to slow down and stop
Used the “go flat out, use body in water to stop technique”, (much to my wife's amusement who was watching most of session) for rest of day. And yes was one of the best sessions I ever had, and was only last November
When I got home I read up some more on the Guy Cribb web page, to work out what I needed to do for control. Have included this for you to look at. Have fun with the next steps, www.guycribb.com/page0076v01.htm
Mineral

Juzz
I wonder if the balance between sail fin and board size is a bit out?
Havn't sailed a board that big for a long time it would seem like a too small sail for that size board and fin, anyone agree or disagree ?