Drive your board up wind in the gusts but a 7.0 in 40kt,s will always be a handfull

I think with 7m in 40kts you'll get smashed! Gusty wind is always a pain! I suppose it depends on how long the gusts are..you can always sit in the water to wait it out till its safe. Or rig a bit smaller as an average.A wind meter would help.Thats what I need.Ive been out twice this week and both times rigged too big.. lucky the water was pretty flat..
When I see gusts I squat/hang off the boom in the harness ( seat) to put weight on the mastfoot and sheet out a bit to luff the sail.I find that I have to hang onto the boom/more pull on front arm up close to the mast when i sheet out & it stuffs my arm quickly so I also will move the front harness line forward a bit so it takes more weight.I was out with a 4m in gusts of up to 40kts Thurs & that was bad enough for me! I flew but was too busy watching the water to appreciate the speed..

If you see the gust coming, lean into the harness trim the board flat and let it run, all the energy goes straight through the board in a poo hot acceleration woo hoo.

Do not dig in your windward rail and try to fight it as then you are resisting you sail when it gets suddenly loaded that path often leads to hurt

Oh for any sort of wind which doesn't get me a punch in the arm from my beloved

40 knots is honkin'.

One thing that I've tried is to sheet out a lot. With a cammed sail this results in the sail suddenly trying to twist itself even more sheeted out, backwinding you, and slamming you into the water very violently. I'm told that this is to do with the flow detaching itself from the windward side or something. So don't sheet out all the way.

Some other people have said to oversheet, this apparently detaches the flow from the leeward side of the sail. I don't know what the forces would be, but good luck hanging onto seven square metres cross sectional area with a coefficient of drag of 1 in 40 knots. So don't sheet in all the way.

So let's try going downwind -- which in 40 knots means that the sea state will be super rough, even on the swan ocean. You're going to be getting loads of air, have difficulty landing properly, and the second you spin out you are toast.

About the only option left is to go upwind, but as this increases the airspeed over the sail you're back in the sheet in/out dilemma. I remember doing a dawn raid on the swan river where I really really couldn't get downwind it was blowing that hard. Only had a 5m sail, and it was probably blowing 35 knots, but the only way I could get downwind was to wait for a lull and go for it before a gust would make me have to slowly slog back upwind.

If it was me out there with a 7 up, and I hit a 40 knot gust, I'd drop the sail and try to survive. I don't think I'd have much choice in the matter! Then wait for a lull and try to get back to shore.

flatout said...

"One thing that I've tried is to sheet out a lot. With a cammed sail this results in the sail suddenly trying to twist itself even more sheeted out, backwinding you, and slamming you into the water very violently. I'm told that this is to do with the flow detaching itself from the windward side or something. So don't sheet out all the way."

That has always been a big problem for me, thanks!

I don't think i have clarified my problem good enough, sorry...

The problem is that i am sailing in a lagune with offshore winds. the wind is coming from a city so the buildings makes it extremely gusty. I can be blasting along in 20-25knots of wind, and all of the sudden a 40knot gust hits me. It only lasts for a second, but feels like God just flicked my sail with his finger . So i cannot rig smaller, because it wouldn't get me going properly, and going up wind is not really an option as i only have about a 100m of water between me and the coast giving me very short time to identify and react to the gusts.

I'll try fixing my harnnes lines more forward at trimming the bord flat, letting it ride more freely. Maybe i am just too tense.

any other advise is welcome

Sounds like sailing in our lake, use longer harness lines, when the big gusts hit the longer lines allow you to get further out off the board and really use your weight, if you get lifted longer lines give you abit more time to regain control.
The past 2 years i've been using 28inch lines my light to moderate sailing was great but couldn't work out why i struggled abit when it started to crank, bought 2 sets of 34inch lines and run them at max settings the difference has been like night and day took a few sessions to get used to the longer lines but never go back now probably could use even longer lines.

Hi Rene

Are you rigging right ?. I'm not familiar with Code red, but I have Gators, and their wind range is unbelievable. They have to be rigged right though to do this. I've sailed in conditions like that here (offshore - ocean), but only in something like 10-30kt though. I'll be sailing along, a gust will hit and I'll hear the leech going nuts as it's spills out the top of the sail with a small and soft surge of power. My strategy in these conditions is rigg sail for peak gust, and rigg so the sail has maximum gust buffering ability.

Good luck

J