OK, this thread is for speed advice.

The speed guru is not me, but the community of seabreeze windsurfers around Australia. So put your speed questions here, and anyone that feels they can help, can answer!!!


I'll just start off with something on sails, that people have reacted to, questions such as how do you rig a sail to go fast, this is what I put on another thread:

Wanna know what a fast sail looks like, check Martin Van der Meurs, rig when he did 49.4 knots, bottom full, top flat to inverted, almost like an s shape:

http://www.naishsails.com/news/news_030107.php

That is from the naish website, so they hold 2 world records.

All the Australian records are held by KA Koncepts, so maybe some of the KA people can talk about their sails.

Neil Pryde have their RS series.

And other brands have theirs, so please all feel free to contirbute.

I find that to maintain speed, I:

bend knees a lot
lean right forward,.... lotsa weight on the front foot
try to engage as much of the rail as possible.... really bury it
look where I wanna be in 0.5 sec.... not where I am now

OK this might not be totally about speed, more about how to rig your sail:

Let's say you're underpowered. You want to be planing all the time, but can only get planing in a big gust (for the day), and sometimes drop off the plane.

How much downhaul do you put on, to get max power from the sail?

Watching the fast guys at the races, they always have their sail really floppy at the top. Admittedly they can afford bigger sails, but even so their leech is always really floppy. Last time I was out in low wind, I started with an almost tight leech, then came in and downhauled a bit more, and surprisingly it seemed as if I got a bit more power! Weird hey!

This is something I really don't understand from a physics point of view. How can more downhaul equal more power?

I agree with nebbian, more downhaul can't possibly equal more power, however it can provide better top end speed.

So maybe that's what these racers go for; a larger sail than would normaly be used and then give it heaps of downhaul.

In this scenario the larger sail is what gives them the power and the floppy leech allows the sail to release the flow of air trying to minimize the extra drag created by using a bigger sail than is necassary.

I guess the tactic of going larger with extra downhaul is arguable, best to try it yourself and see how you can handle it.

As for riding position, that photo of Martin Van der Meurs is an excellent example of the speed stance. If it were'nt for the front footstrap, he would fall off the back of that rig!

Less board in water, less drag, go faster! Simple

Sik Rex

sorry I was being a d!ck and trying to be funny but nobody would bite. Disregard my advice

ok here's my 2cents worth.
I get allot of guys saying why so much down haul the winds only light.
Shouldn't you let some off. My answer nope the sail wont work otherwise. I've tried tested allot of different settings.
you may get going slightly quicker with a bagged out sail but you lose speed and acceleration and being able to get though the those lulls. It's surprising the difference in feel it can make to a sail having the correct settings.
Getting the air flow out as quick as possible = more speed.
So for me heaps of downhaul.
shh Ive said to much already.

Gestalt,

I'm sure you're quite right, I guess I've always sailed with the attitude that Matt Pritchard professed in the old Gaastra video, 'Just rig it and sail it', 'as long as it's rigged right'. But I never did listen to his last add on.

I've had a tendancy to give less downhaul than is required (unless it's over 22 knots) and just relied on sheeting in really hard, I just love that 'out of control' feeling (until I crash out that is!)

Finian Maynard I ain't! I'd rather get air to be honest, although there is nothing quite like the feeling when you're REALLY over powered and skipping accross the chop, knowing that at any moment your gear will end up in the 'turtle' position with you wondering what the F@!!k just happend!

finian maynard i am not either. but i wish i was. then i could go sailing every day.

Have to agree with heaps of downhaul, latest experience cranking downhaul another 40 mm, equaled another 3 knots on the GPS. I was wondering though if I was going to tear my sail in half., now that could be expensive not to mention downright embarassing

Well,

I find after much experimenting I have to agree with Vando.

1. The 'right' downhaul on a sail does not adversely affect early planing ability - you need to learn how to pump in these conditions - not enough downhaul makes a sail 'heavy' and the draft moves around heaps making control hard - it also makes pumping harder as the sail feels 'heavier' if there is not enough downhaul.

2. It is possible to put too much downhaul on the sail - this makes the sail excessively "twitchy" - it is either "all on" or "all off" with respect to the power in the sail - this makes it very hard to get on the plane - you always feels like you are underpowered or about to go over the handle bars!!

3. My advice is to rig the correct or recommended level of downhaul and use outhaul to control the power in the sail.

In really windy conditions I might put an extra 1cm of downhaul - but this is about the limit.

With regard to efficiency and speed - I don't necessarily agree with Matthew's comments. In flat water it is easier to hold and extra 0.5m of sail area and often you will need this to be able to bear off to the right angle and also to point back upwind to get back up a course in 1-2 tacks.

Ultimately - you will acheive your peak speeds when you feel 1. Comfortable and 2. Confident with your kit.

- J

quote:

---

Originally posted by drjukka
With regard to efficiency and speed - I don't necessarily agree with Matthew's comments. In flat water it is easier to hold and extra 0.5m of sail area and often you will need this to be able to bear off to the right angle and also to point back upwind to get back up a course in 1-2 tacks.

---

It might be easier to use more sail area in flat water, but the fastest guys at Sandy Point are definitely sailing underpowered (eg: using 0.5m smaller than you would expect) to go faster.

Speed sailing to the initiated, looks just like drag racing, just fanging along in a straight line, sh1t anyone can do it and most will go for the occasional blast on flat water and call it speed sailing, well sorry guys it's not, just the same as street racing is not drag racing it's a lot more involved than that.

The starting point for speed sailors is the occasional blast as the base and then from that point tweaking, tuning, training, testing to improve from there.

After a while doing there generally are no huge jumps in performance, consistency improves considerably, but increases in speed are generally in increments of part of a knot (in my case to much dancing and jumping up and down).

To go fast apart from having the right kit (which is a a fair chunk), mind set plays major part.

Speed sailing is about pushing limits

• Equipment
• Skills
• Mentally

Equipment
Unfortunately this is money related and depends on how much money you
want to (or can afford to) through at the pursuit.

Skills
These have to be worked on constantly, GPS makes a fantastic training tool as you can see objectively how you are going with each run and can modify what you are doing to see what helps.

Mentally
Speed sailing is about riding on the limit of everything and as you are riding on that limit so regularly you also have a tenancy to push it a bit to much and have it go spectacularly pear shaped.

It is this thought which is in everyones mind. You have to accept this as a part of life and leave it on the shoreline it is also here is where you set up your contingency plan, Helmet (a definite necessity), Impact vest or PFD, sail with a mate.

Going fast and seeing a gust coming, I've found that most peoples (and my) first reaction when a gust hits when already going fast is to stand up and back of, having done this a few times and had it end badly, I've found that the best thing to do (generally) is to grin, lean back into the harness and point my front foot to trim the board flat, it can seem be a bit hairy at first, but then you start recognizing a trend in your speeds and you go looking for those dark patches.

Slow your mind down, probably not the way to describe what you need to do but close.

It starts relaxing and with slowing down your breathing rate, which will help slow down your heart rate, if your body is not panicking then it will help your brain not to panic.

"Think past the next corner" this is a trick used by down hill skiers and race car drivers the principle of which if you think about the corner you are approaching by the time you've thought about it you're past it.
Basically what it means is don't focus on six inches on front of your board, look well ahead of your board and plan your line, remember at 30knots you are traveling at 15m/sec (5 board lengths every second).


Another point is to set your gear up Comfortable, if you are fighting your gear you won't go fast, once you are comfortable you will be more confident and will push harder.


Most importantly do it for "Fun", Speed sailing is a personal thing where we race ourselves.

My PB's are nowhere near what Finnian's and Chris Lockwood's are (I'd be happy for a 35 Average) but I have a ball doing it and whenever I've seen CL sail he has generally got one of the biggest smiles on his face I've ever seen.

Sickem

Wear a helmet, no balance problems whatever, anything else is realistically just an excuse not to wear one due to image issues.

I predominantly use weed fins at my location occasionally bringing out a pointer on a weed free day if sailing across the estuary. If you are cavitating fins when going over chop, go up a size. My recommendations is to play around with them and try out different combinations (Test and Tune)

I also have an old 90's board with square front to back rails so I know here you are coming from. With the chop try moving the mast foot back it will help lift the from of the board.

If you are feeling like you are going to be catapulted constantly you are possibly standing to upright, try lowering your boom this will give you a bit more "bent leg" before you get to the upright tipping over position.

Thanks for the helmet advice Elmo. I nearly bought one a while back in Hawaii right after I broke my cheekbone bailing out from a jump and the board landed on my head. But alas, it just didn't do much for me stylewise
Funnily enough I've only just gotten used to having the mastfoot further foward to counter the bounce I used to get in the chop and it seems to have worked but I'll do some experimenting next time there's a lot of chop and see what happens. Also I do have the boom a lot higher than I used to so I may drop it down a tad and see what difference that makes too.
mkseven, I'm not sure I'd lop the front of my board off but it's an intersting thought.
Any thoughts on my 32cm fin being too big? Should I try to get a 29 or a 30? And if so does anyone have one they are looking to get rid of that will fit a Fanatic box???

Oi hardie, its running 17 knots,SW how come your on the net
Mineral

I hate you guys....lol