Yesterday it must have been gusting to 35 knts. Once I had my harness lines adjusted perfectly the conditions were managable on flat water, we wont talk about gybing though. But on the run back to the launch spot through the middle of the bay, I had a hell of time just sailing in a straight line. The sail was still managable but keeping the board trimmed so it would'nt spin out and keeping speed down so I did'nt jump every chop was the issue. As Hardie said, this seems to be a skill mastered by the few elite. Anyone got any tips

Carefully

Lower the boom a touch as it allows your knees to bend a bit and not have you standing so upright.

Down haul the sail to the max (and then a bit more)

DO NOT out haul the sail to the max!!!

If the front of the board is coming up shift the mast foot forward a touch.

Don't slow down, if you do, you must be sheeting out or standing more upright with less weight on the harness lines, not good.
If you have too, squat down, grit teeth and squint eyes

I gotta agree with Nebs, sorry Elmo, but if there is a reason let me know, I'm no rocket scientist

Ok, I now see what ya mean. I was thinking recommended max, not over outhauling, your dead right.

South Qld maybe ya buggers, nothing north

quote:

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Originally posted by nebbian

I'm still not convinced, I'll have to do some experiments. Fortunately the conditions at the moment let us (well qld'ers at least) try it out in real life

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I think you may be surprised, hopefully not disappointed

And as the Fireybob fella put

Lean back, grit teeth, close eyes Hang on

As soon as you start backing of you stand up, your sail becomes more loaded up with power making it a lot more work to hang onto and more likely to throw you.

Ride it like you mean it! you may get a rather big shock when the sphincter clenching run just annihilates your PB's

Speed sailing is sailing overpowered

If you have a flat sail raked back and mast track forward and then sheet out you have an aerofoil attatched to the front part of your board. Tailwalk.. spinout.. crash.. ouch.
Try it with a triangle of carboard held vertically and rotate it about the long side (mast).
Elmo's right. Low down grunt with lots of twist = fast.

I have found by that if i have too much out haul the sail is unstable. Where if i have lots downhaul and bugger all outhaul the sail seems to just sit and the power is locked in just behindn the mast so.

So now when i know i will be fully lit i still have just enough outhaul to keep the sail off the boom.

The other thing i have found is DONT BACK OFF, the second you try and back off you get pulled onto your toes and from there its all down hill. just sit down int he harness and hang onnnnnn!!!!!!!

Well I'm sure I had my sail set correctly Elmo, I even had a Vando check, but yes I was a scardy cat and stood upright and backed off. I find sailing Redcliffe in open Moreton Bay really easy, even easier as the wind gets stronger as the swell is big and rolling, and relatively smooth in between, its just the small trough like stuff that scares me, its like the biggest corrugated road you can find. Well I'll guess I'll just have to hunker down and see what happens. Besides just survival, this is a really important skill for speed sailing as often the conditions are far from perfect.

Two words BIG BALLS
But seriously it’s all experience the more you do it the easier it gets. You need to have allot of faith in your fin too. On the outhaul thing it’s really dependant on the sail and where the draft is.
Ta vando

i really dont have much idea but here are some of the points i use generally, (but not as a rule) as all conditions vary some what as Haggar has mentioned. 40 knots in flat water is alot easier to handle than 30 knots in the open ocean.to small a fin in chop will lead to more chances of high speed slides as there is not much fin in the water when the board leaves the water,flat water on the other hand should handle a smaller fin for the same breeze strength.
lots of down haul i guess would be good for lots of twist.only just enough outhaul to take the slop out of the clew, too much outhaul will take too much camber from the sail allowing the sail to back wind easier as the draft will wander aft in the gusts resulting in the old face slam to windward scenario.
mast step forward more than normal to help keep the board in the water and help engage the rais through the gybe.
as the mast goes forward you generally have to adjust the boom upwards to maintain comfort and controll how ever its generally good to keep the boom down slightly according to the experts.
the other tips i find useful are wearing things like helmets and lately i have started using a life vest (np model in maxed out conditions) which gives protection to the ribs and floats you higher in the water for water starts and rests etc.
the other thing i have found in max conditions in big chop is the difficulty of keeping the board from launching into jumps.. some times you just got to go with the flow,when you get air a straight rear leg will kill the hieght of the jump and tend to keep the body over the board instead of to the side which on landing can end up in a swim how ever landing a jump with the leg straight will also end up in a slide if you land sideways so i guess its a fine line.
basically vando has summed it up well..its really a case of getting as much time on the water as possible.

f..k that was along winded piece of bull sh.t...

Wow, lots of advise here. Don't worry haggar I can't sail fast in wild conditions either. No.1 reason: practice, we simply don't have windy enough conditions often enough here.

Gestalt I disagree with everything you have typed, apart from the holding a bigger race sail than wave sail bit.

One simple thing you can do to handle chop is build up leg strenth. The stronger they are the more chop you can handle. Get on the mountain bike and pound out some miles going uphill, best thing I've ever done to improve my sailing. Most regular windsurfers have got the upper body strength to handle the rig, it's leg strenth that controls the board and keeping the fin working and flying over the chop. You want to skim over the top rather than drive into the chop, lift with your front foot and push down on your toes with your back foot and get your weight away from the board by dropping the boom so you can hike out further. Here in the Gorge we have some of the nastiest chop you'll ever encounter, learn to sail fast in this stuff and you'll be fast everywhere else.