When I'm foiling my harness lines are constantly unhooking because I'm pulling the rig towards me. I haven't figured out why this is happening. For all I know my whole stance could be wrong somehow. I kind of want to get an action camera so I can record and view what's happening but I don't really have the money for it (I'm also wary of how much I would learn from a helmet or boom end camera unless I get a 360 camera). Maybe someone else has experienced the same thing with unhooking and can tell me what their issue was.

My lines aren't super long, and I don't mind being unhooked but clearly something is wrong with my rig/stance.

Load harness. Use less muscle.

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shmish said..
When I'm foiling my harness lines are constantly unhooking because I'm pulling the rig towards me. I haven't figured out why this is happening. For all I know my whole stance could be wrong somehow. I kind of want to get an action camera so I can record and view what's happening but I don't really have the money for it (I'm also wary of how much I would learn from a helmet or boom end camera unless I get a 360 camera). Maybe someone else has experienced the same thing with unhooking and can tell me what their issue was.

My lines aren't super long, and I don't mind being unhooked but clearly something is wrong with my rig/stance.

harness lines could be in the wrong position, wrong boom height and you are not letting you weight into the harness.
you need to push your shoulders back/outwards towards the water.

Had the same problem, the lines were too long, with shorter lines I stay hooked in (see my review of the Sailworks quicktune lines), though I do make sure I lean out as much as possible, but that is not much when foiling with an efficient wing, just too little pressure on the sail. Just be careful with short lines, if the gust drops fast and you do not get out quickly, the sail will pull you over into the water. And foiling with short lines (26" range) is a balancing act in gusty conditions, be ready to cut up wind when a gust hits, otherwise you can go flying, not breaching, but flying with the foil in the air and you hooked in with the sail almost parallel to the water.

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Sandman1221 said..
Had the same problem, the lines were too long, with shorter lines I stay hooked in (see my review of the Sailworks quicktune lines), though I do make sure I lean out as much as possible, but that is not much when foiling with an efficient wing, just too little pressure on the sail. Just be careful with short lines, if the gust drops fast and you do not get out quickly, the sail will pull you over into the water. And foiling with short lines (26" range) is a balancing act in gusty conditions, be ready to cut up wind when a gust hits, otherwise you can go flying, not breaching, but flying with the foil in the air and you hooked in with the sail almost parallel to the water.

Yup. Having adjustable race harness lines really helps you get this dialed. No clue what length I use but when I feel that my arms are loading up I shorten the lines and relax a lot.

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AUS 2459 said..

shmish said..
When I'm foiling my harness lines are constantly unhooking because I'm pulling the rig towards me. I haven't figured out why this is happening. For all I know my whole stance could be wrong somehow. I kind of want to get an action camera so I can record and view what's happening but I don't really have the money for it (I'm also wary of how much I would learn from a helmet or boom end camera unless I get a 360 camera). Maybe someone else has experienced the same thing with unhooking and can tell me what their issue was.

My lines aren't super long, and I don't mind being unhooked but clearly something is wrong with my rig/stance.

harness lines could be in the wrong position, wrong boom height and you are not letting you weight into the harness.
you need to push your shoulders back/outwards towards the water.

Agreed/ There's a tendency to move the lines forward as you are learning because you are putting less pressure on the rig. As you get more time on the water and load the sail and lines more, you should adjust the line position accordingly. For me, having more foil pressure forward means I can hang hard on the lines where when I was starting out because of a number of reasons including using an old board with the mast track too far forward, I had to use a lot of back foot pressure to fly which made it uncomfortable to use proper length lines.

As well, as most people learn, they tend to use slight shorter (5cm/2 inches) lines because they aren't comfortable leaning out and powering up the sail. With time on the water, many of us will gravitate back to line lengths similar to what we use with fins.

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Paducah said..

AUS 2459 said..

shmish said..
When I'm foiling my harness lines are constantly unhooking because I'm pulling the rig towards me. I haven't figured out why this is happening. For all I know my whole stance could be wrong somehow. I kind of want to get an action camera so I can record and view what's happening but I don't really have the money for it (I'm also wary of how much I would learn from a helmet or boom end camera unless I get a 360 camera). Maybe someone else has experienced the same thing with unhooking and can tell me what their issue was.

My lines aren't super long, and I don't mind being unhooked but clearly something is wrong with my rig/stance.

harness lines could be in the wrong position, wrong boom height and you are not letting you weight into the harness.
you need to push your shoulders back/outwards towards the water.

Agreed/ There's a tendency to move the lines forward as you are learning because you are putting less pressure on the rig. As you get more time on the water and load the sail and lines more, you should adjust the line position accordingly. For me, having more foil pressure forward means I can hang hard on the lines where when I was starting out because of a number of reasons including using an old board with the mast track too far forward, I had to use a lot of back foot pressure to fly which made it uncomfortable to use proper length lines.

As well, as most people learn, they tend to use slight shorter (5cm/2 inches) lines because they aren't comfortable leaning out and powering up the sail. With time on the water, many of us will gravitate back to line lengths similar to what we use with fins.

+1 to that!
Go for shorter lines, push them forward, whatever you feel comfortable with.
Time on water will pay off, your reluctance to lean out will wane and you'll be able to go in stronger winds.
For most sailors this becomes cort of a cycle of leaning out more, makeing the lines longer, loading the sail more, shifting the lines back a little,............ .
Watch Nicolas Goyard's video "40 Knot Challenge and admire how he hangs below the sail like a monkey on very long lines cruising at more than 30 knots.
While this may be the way you want to go one time, there's no need to hurry on the way there.
Have a good time out there and fool around!

If you are using a "free-foil" meaning less of a racing type foil then your stance is going to be more upright and you are not hiking off the rail as much and so not putting as much tension on the harness line.

I use 27" harness lines for free foiling (30" for windsurfing), my boom is also higher for foiling.

I also use fairly small sails for foiling and so I also adopt a different hands position on the boom meaning my hands are much closer together to manipulate the draft in the sail!....if you go with a gorilla wide hand position this may also cause the harness line to hook out?