short rantAt 6'7 I'm finding I need the boom right at the top of every sail I have, higher in some cases.
do sail makers think all windsurfers are short?

If short is defined as less than 6'7", yes.

Not ideal , but you could use more extension .

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Imax1 said..
Not ideal , but you could use more extension .

Thought about that.

My first thought was: I wonder where he sets his mast foot?

Set it further back in the track, and move your front footstraps forwards.

If you are on the right size board for your weight then the correct stance set up should solve your perceived height problems.

what kit are you sailing, I'm 6'3" (I know still a fair bit of difference) BUT I am usually using my boom just above mid cutout to slightly below. Sailing slalom gear, if I were 4" taller I don't think I would be at top of the range.

Scissors.
You'd complain if you were 5' tall also.

Ben, can you explain what feels "wrong" if you put the boom any lower? I'm 6'6" and only sail slalom and speed gear. The only time I'm higher than the middle of the cutout (only just) is when I'm on the 70wide slalom and am standing more outboard. From slalom sails 5m-7m I'm around 50mm from bottom of cutout on 58wide slalom and 44wide speed board. I will run slightly higher in choppier conditions.

Depends on the kit.
HSM I'm below middle of cutout, Goya I'm almost at the top. I'm 6' with short legs.

Need a Z boom upside down, if your old enough to remember them.

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gh said..
Need a Z boom upside down, if your old enough to remember them.

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Ben1973 said..
short rantAt 6'7 I'm finding I need the boom right at the top of every sail I have, higher in some cases.
do sail makers think all windsurfers are short?

I can see your problem. Presumably sailmakers design the boom cutout so that a person of average height will position their boom dead centre. Apparently the average height of a mature male is 5'9". Ten inches shorter than you !!!! That would mean making a boom cutout 20 inches long, which they obviously don't. For the record, I'm six foot and with my Ezzys downhauled block to block I set my boom one inch either side of centre depending on the conditions.
Have you ever thought about taking up basketball instead of windsurfing?!!!......sorry only joking.
Your only option as I see it is to have a sailmaker extend your cutout but this could get expensive if you have several sails.
Good luck.

Just turn the rig upside down.

6'4" I run my boom just above middle of cutout. No problem running it lower. I use a Dakine Reflexharness, low hook.
Can you lower your hook height?

Call Jeff at Hotsails Maui. Their cutout, especially on their bigger, speed-oriented sails, goes to over my 6' head, and they will certainly modify it for you if you need something higher yet.

Find an old Z boom and trurn it upside down

Could just be the sails you're using. I'm only 6 ft, but have the boom close to the top on my North freestyle sails. On a newer Severne Freek, it's 4-5 inches lower. On my Loft race sails, the boom is below the middle, and that puts it a bit higher on my body than the freestyle sails. Most freestylers are not taller than I am, but many racers are.

I've got on Gaastra freeride sail where the boom is also quite low; in older versions of the same sail, the boom was higher, but they changed the design a lot a few years back, and apparently moved the mast cutout.

The German Surf magazine typically notes in their sail tests if mast cutouts don't work for tall or short people.

6 foot 4 here and with Ezzy Sails I am at the top of the boom cut out.

I'm not as tall as you Ben, just 6"4. Years go when Formula boards were in, and we used our booms at eye height, I had to get scissors on the boom cut-out to gain an extra 2 or 3 inches height.

But nowadays, centre of the boom cut out normally gives me chest height boom. Mast foot well back, seat harness and short lines seems to help me (on slalom & speed kit).

But I guess our own personal stance and set up massively effect how high we like/need the boom.

p.s. you could slightly increase the mast extension, but I'm sure you probably tried this already.

Yep scissors...

Ditto riding formula boards, I'm short 5'8" and with 30" lines boom was set pretty high in the window.

I rode along once with a 230lb 6'7" sailor. His boom was at belly button height. That day he was overpowered on 4.7 in winds between 35 and 55 knots.

The thing is you can't do anything about the clew height, other than increasing mast extension. So you may end up with quite a boom angle.

Maybe go custom?

Add a PVC spacer to the mast base, I added 3/4" that way and rig sails as normal. Can get longer bolts with full threading from belmetric.com

Haha. You are probably the only 6'7" guy who windsurfs so no one will cater for you. Take your sails to any tailoring shop and explain that they need to extend the cutout several inches and do overlock stitch / make them look like original. Our sports are cool like this because everything is plastic and cloth and can be changed easily. :) If you still have doubts on how easily things can be customized, buy a few kites ain't no booms there. I also recommend to very heavy guys kitesurfing instead of windsurfing to avoid piles of bulky equipment.

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sailquik said..

gh said..
Need a Z boom upside down, if your old enough to remember them.

Many years ago I actually toyed with that idea

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Stretchy said..
6'4" I run my boom just above middle of cutout. No problem running it lower. I use a Dakine Reflexharness, low hook.
Can you lower your hook height?

Severne POD harness so about as low as you can get.

On my fox 120 I generally have the mast base in the rear half of the track with 7.8 and 8.6 M3's and front straps in the middle and the rears as far back as they go.

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leto said..
Haha. You are probably the only 6'7" guy who windsurfs so no one will cater for you. Take your sails to any tailoring shop and explain that they need to extend the cutout several inches and do overlock stitch / make them look like original. Our sports are cool like this because everything is plastic and cloth and can be changed easily. :) If you still have doubts on how easily things can be customized, buy a few kites ain't no booms there. I also recommend to very heavy guys kitesurfing instead of windsurfing to avoid piles of bulky equipment.

Don't take sails to a tailing shop, their machines would not be able to do this, sails are a lot heavier than clothes and their machines wouldn't cope.

If you go to a decent sail maker they would have to unpick an area of the luff tube, do the alteration and then re-stitch the luff tube back down, its a bit of a pain to do but probably worth doing.

You could also just hot knife a slit above the re-enforced cut out and fold it back but you wouldn't have any re-enforcement left and it could create a week point.

Best to keep in mind that the shape of a windsurfing stance is roughly like a triangle, so your height is the hypotenuse and the feet to boom height is the shorter adjacent side. Essentially, a sailor who is 10 inches taller won't automatically need a 10 inch higher boom, maybe 7 inches, and that's before other adjustments like those mentioned by Basher are made, or before applying the lesser option of having a higher mast foot.

Take a leaf out of Han's sailing stye

I am 6'4'' and have a wife of 5' we use the same sails 3.7 to 5.7. It can be a pain, but there is no doubt sail cutouts are different heights on luff tubes. At present we have Goyas, Simmers and Tushingham. I have the boom at the very top on the Tushinghams, but on the others I am only just over half way up the gap. So unless you sail with a very high boom height, pick your sails carefully, don't rely on a make staying the same, this does not mean you have to have sails that feel wildly different and you will manage. I do not complain when changing between sails as they feel similar, after 30 years sailing I do know the difference and this "cutout" problem has always been there.

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Sandman1221 said..
Add a PVC spacer to the mast base

You've heard of a mast-extension ?

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mathew said..

Sandman1221 said..
Add a PVC spacer to the mast base

You've heard of a mast-extension ?

Yes, but with a mast base spacer you can rig your sails as normal using the specified/printed downhaul range. Now I use the spacer to keep the mast from hitting the ridge on the concave deck, but it does also raise the sail cut out height.