100kg wavesailor wants to get planing in a bit less wind on the ****ty days. I get this idea in my head every few years, have a go and then give up as it feels funny with big fins and all that stuff. Anyway, back again doing the same but figured an easy board (Carve) and an easy sail (NCX) will be better than my previous dabbles with cams and freerace / slalom stuff. Might be able to rig up in less than 20mins and actually turn the farker

So I have
2011 (?) Carve 121L, 251x68, tail width at 30cm is 435mm, the cutouts are a bit smaller than what they do now I think.
7.5m NCX (thanks Jesse for a ripper deal)
40cm Drake slalom (gather its from a starboard that is more racey than the Carve, like iSonic or something)
38cm Drake freeride that is from one of the old Carves. Lots more chord than the above fin so undecided whats better for me.

So for the raceheads out there, what do you reckon my wind range is?
Which fin?
Umm, anything I have stuffed up or need to ponder...?

What about the batons?

You might be sweet in 15 knts until you can go back on the wave gear with that combo.I would be in 10 knts

As long as I can get planning I won't worry about baton tension

I thought 15 would be about my min for easy planing?

Seems a good setup for your weight for 15kts. Camless is the way to go for fun coastal sailing. Use the 40cm fin and leave the curvy one on the beach. Put the straps outboard and sail from the fin.

Mark I think you'll need more than 15 knots to be honest. I'm about 10kgs heavier than you and I'd be using a similar set-up in 17-20K. To get planing in 15K I'm on a 135L / 82 wide board and an 8.5.

Suck it and see. If you're not a fan of wide boards and big sails you probably don't want to go that large.

Mark,

Whats your biggest wave sail? That might work too if your against the 7.5NCX at first.

I have an old blue carve but its my high wind winter storm board at 94lts. Yeah I know its not that small.

Try your carve with a sail that you are already comfy with a couple of times, then once you're ok with the extra size take the NCX for a blast.

Let us all know how it goes.

I'm 95kg on a 95L with a 6.5 NCX. I can't get on the plane in 14 knots (vis a vis LOC) but I reckon I might just in 16 knots.

I have a 9.0m2 Neil Pryde RAF Supersonic which you can have for $50 but you will need a 490cm mast and a 237 cm boom to run it. It is a camless sail and a light one at that, easy to rig, childs play for a man of your calibre. I believe you will plane in 13-15 knots with this sail. I managed to do so on a 120 litre board and am 95kg.

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BSN101 said..
Mark,

Whats your biggest wave sail? That might work too if your against the 7.5NCX at first.

I have an old blue carve but its my high wind winter storm board at 94lts. Yeah I know its not that small.

Try your carve with a sail that you are already comfy with a couple of times, then once you're ok with the extra size take the NCX for a blast.

Let us all know how it goes.

I did try it with 6.2 Atlas fairly well powered and found it is not enough power to hang against and thus can't get out onto the rail properly..... but once overpowered it was OK.... but sail misbehaving by then.

Thanks everyone - seems I am in the ballpark and will find out

You got a good setup.drop a few kilos then you will be dialled.just my two cents

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Pointman said..
Mark I think you'll need more than 15 knots to be honest. I'm about 10kgs heavier than you and I'd be using a similar set-up in 17-20K. To get planing in 15K I'm on a 135L / 82 wide board and an 8.5.

Suck it and see. If you're not a fan of wide boards and big sails you probably don't want to go that large.

+1

Mark - an >80cm board would be much better in patchy ~15 knot winds.

At 102kg I changed from 72cm (JP Xcite) to 84cm (Tabou wide) - radically better at staying on the plane through lulls.

Bigger sail (increased from 7.2 to 9.0m) on the 72cm wide just tired me out quicker, with very marginal planning gain.

Absolutely not taking the piss here.

I lost around 6kg and it made such a difference in my lighter wind kiting days.

Do you recon you could get down to 92-93?kg?

No cos then I need a new waveboard. And its all muscle anyway

@100 kilos , the 7.5 is your biggest sail ??
you must be a wave sailor ....
as an inland heavyweight sailor with MANY **itty days ...
go on a longboard with an 8.5 - goes from 10 - 20 knots
could NOT take a 120 liter board with a 7.5 on those days ...
water starts would not work and uphauling difficult, but not impossible
losing weight will make a BIG difference !!!
good luck n let us know
and keep on tryin

I'm 93kg+/- riding a 110L @64cm wide with a 37cm and a 7m twin cam which is a few years old.
15kts is about the min for me to get planing on this gear.
The wider board, bigger fin and marginally bigger & newer sail should get you going in those moderate days.
Wind which is sub white caps <12 knt forget about it.

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Mark _australia said..
As long as I can get planning I won't worry about baton tension

I thought 15 would be about my min for easy planing?

That's what I meant. Should be good to get planning with 15 knts (and a bit of pumping at the start).

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Underoath said..
Absolutely not taking the piss here.

I lost around 6kg and it made such a difference in my lighter wind kiting days.

Do you recon you could get down to 92-93?kg?

I've been told once (true of not) that 1kg off the board was equal to 10Kg off your body weight to get planning.

I've been told that if I stopped drinking beer, I wouldn't need to get a bigger board.

I'm 65kg and use a 7.4m and 38cm fin for my low wind setup. I would have though that for 100kg you'd be going bigger on the sail?

Further to my earlier post, I originally thought I had misread your original post. Light wind set up, 100kg, 7.5m sail. What???

Only now realising that wave sailors have a totally different mindset with regard to sail size.

To a flat water sailor, 7.5m sail for a 100kg sailor is not large. I would have thought 8.5m to be the minimum if you are really looking to get going in lighter wind. (flat water, I guess you mean?)

^^ Yes Harrow, I just figured out why everyone is assuming I mean under 15kn or something. I just meant to extend TOW when I can't quite go wavesailing. And I can't afford to buy much at the monet and especially for something that will be rarely used, so it is cobbled together over time.

I think I needed to word it better, just wanted to know if fin, sail and board sizes match. That's it.

Now it needs a mast - seeking severne SDM 460 a few years old - anyone?

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Mark _australia said..
^^ Yes Harrow, I just figured out why everyone is assuming I mean under 15kn or something. I just meant to extend TOW when I can't quite go wavesailing. And I can't afford to buy much at the monet and especially for something that will be rarely used, so it is cobbled together over time.

I think I needed to word it better, just wanted to know if fin, sail and board sizes match. That's it.

Now it needs a mast - seeking severne SDM 460 a few years old - anyone?

Severne has 460 RDM masts (what I use).

my biggest wave sail is 5m i love it but i only realise how heavy and demanding and poor the performance is when you put the 4.7 up and it sinks in straight away its too big..how the fark can you sail a wave with a 7.5 you have got to be kidding me you could not possibly bottom turn.. 5.6/5.8 has to be the limit surely. i hate it when its light and boys are on a 5.6 or 5.8 and are on the plain on the way out and I'm on grovel street but if a 5.0 sux 5.6/5.8 must just gass all your energy on a wave

Interesting take on freeride equipment.

Mark, I have a Patrik Freeride 125L the same size as your Carve.

I freeride in the ocean and wavesail so I get the difference between freeride and wave kit.

I start planing consistently at about 15 knots, equally easily with a 6.6m Severne Gator and light-weight rig (Enigma boom, 430 Enigma 100% mast) or with my Ezzy Lion 2 cam sail and heavier rig (Aeron slalom boom, 460 Hot Rod 90% heavier mast).
Either of these rig options are good to about 22 knots.

I have a 40 MB Freeride fin which is ok but prefer using a Tribal 36 once the wind gets a bit over 15 knots.

I reckon your kit setup is good. Maybe try a more powerful slalom fin (42?) for light wind, for a possible small improvement in early planing.

I'm 82kgs but a lazy pumper. JJ

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Mark _australia said..
^^ Yes Harrow, I just figured out why everyone is assuming I mean under 15kn or something. I just meant to extend TOW when I can't quite go wavesailing. And I can't afford to buy much at the monet and especially for something that will be rarely used, so it is cobbled together over time.

I think I needed to word it better, just wanted to know if fin, sail and board sizes match. That's it.

Now it needs a mast - seeking severne SDM 460 a few years old - anyone?

Okay, I use a 7.4 on a 61cm wide 105 litre Tabou rocket with a 36cm fin.

It is pretty much the comfortable upper limit for the board, and I'm only 65kg.

At 100kg, as you know you'd need a bigger board for that size sail, and with the 68cm wide that you mention and 40cm fin, probably okay and getting near it's comfortable limit. Sounds a plausible setup, but not sure about the 15 knots, probably hang on once a stronger gust gets you onto the plane.

Yeah Mark, you're in the ballpark. Maybe 42cm fin? Maybe a 7.8 or similar? You probably want to stick with camless because more power.

Freeride is (obviously, as you know) very different to wave sailing. But you may grow to love it. You can point a lot higher. The apparent wind angle is much higher. Your wind:actual speed is much higher. It's smoother. The wind is less gusty at those speeds. It's a different riding style; riding the fin; it can feel really cool. You can fine-tune everything to a really high degree. You'll be drier. It can make for a really relaxing afternoon's sailing without getting boring.

On the downside the gear bigger is heavier, reacts slower and you feel more connected to it rather than it connected to you, if that makes sense. But all-in-all if powered up it's easier to sail as you can just hang there.


What's the trick to gybing on bigger gear? How does one stay on the plane? I never quite got it. I found that because you get going like what, 1.5x perhaps 2x the actual wind speed accelerating into a gybe on smooth, flat water, that I can't flip the sail because I'm still going into the wind, apparently. And by the time the actual wind speed catches up to my board speed, that you can flip the rig, once you've gone through the wind, I've come off the plane. I mean in around 15 knots.

^^ thanks Panda.
I will never love it as loading the fin and going fast is fun for 10mins then the legs are buggered.
Soooo different to wavesailing muscles

Nah really, its different and cool, just that takes a while to get those lower leg muscles working when not used to it.

Hey Mark....forget the big freeride gear....I agree with gavnwend and underoath....drop the kilos,seriously. I have a 105 thruster and I was 105 kilos....too heavy...too much slogging around....I dropped 9 kilos and it made a MASSIVE difference....I can't stress that enough...I dusted off my 95 litre FSW and have a ball with a 5.3 when the breeze gets up....plan for next summer.....

I have just dropped some weight. There are still days of 15-16kn with zero swell, why go schlogging out hoping for a wavesail, when u can plane on freeride stuff?
Besides it is also for a LOC plan (one day... sigh...)