After some pointers and advice please. Been trying my new board (starboard go 133) but struggling to get going. Wobbling and struggle to work out how much wind to try or where to put feet. Was using beginner larger board (200) and coped ok. About 2 months into windsurfing and hooked. Using 5.5 sail and weigh 86kg. Had a shot at 15 knot wind other day and board just sank on me when trying to go. Thanks in advance

I'm a bit lighter than you at 75ks. In a 15 knot breeze I would be on my 114 litre board with a 7m sail and would be just comfortable. Not flat out just cruising weather. Your sail size is the problem. A 5.5 is just not big enough to get planing. It will get you slogging but that is probably not what you want. As for feet position, keep them on the centreline of the board until you get going a bit faster and the sail can take some of the weight. If you are getting to the stage you are starting to plane, take more weight onto your back foot, keeping it on the centre-line and start moving your front foot toward the front strap.

I'm guessing that the 200 liter board had so much bouyancy that you could stand pretty much anywhere you wanted. With the smaller board, paying attention to your weight distribution will be a lot more important. At 15 knots and 86kg, a 5.5 sail would have your under-powered, so I'm guessing the tail was sinking? In that situation you can't have your feet in or near the foot straps, but instead you will need to be moving your weight forward, with your front foot just behind the mast. Also in addition to moving weight forward, in lighter winds you need to pay careful attention to balancing your weight near the center line of the board, as Iceman said, to prevent tipping and rocking.

When you start planing then you can move further toward the rear of the board, and outwards, and eventually into the straps when you are properly powered up. At your weight, you would probably need closer to 20 knots with the 5.5 sail to start planing, or else to plane in 15 knots, something more like a 7.0 sail.

Unlike your larger board, smaller boards are not good at plodding around under-powered in a light breeze. Either they are powered up nicely and planing well, or else they are schlogging around in a sloppy fashion being not much fun at all. To get the most out of a 133 liter board, you will need a sail larger than 5.5 for those moderate wind days. The ideal would be to have something like a 6.5 and a 7.5 in addition to your 5.5

^^^^^ what he said.

I would add, I am also 85KG and have recently gone through the learner-to-intermediate stage. Learning what gear to use in specific conditions is part of the struggle.

Are you competent using a harness yet? If not, practice using one on larger board first and then go to smaller board.

Wind speed depends on whether you mean base wind or gusts. Where I sail mostly wind gusts are 5-6 knots more than the base wind and while I can get going in 14-15 kts I need a base wind of around 13 to stay on plane.

Wind / sail / planing for me

8kts-gusting 12kts Sub planing on a 9mt

12 - gusting 15 Planing on 9 on a 165 liter Superlightwind

13 - gusting 16+ planing on 8.4

15 - gusting 20 planing on 7.5 maybe 6.5

20+ kts planing on 6.5

25+ kts more planing on 5.7

You would need 20+ kts base wind to get going on a 5.5 I reckon.

Hi,
reading the responses I think the answer is clear. You need to get a bigger sail.

I am an intermediate windsurfer. I mostly use my starboard Go 145 L at anglesea on the sea. I love to sail with medium winds with my 7 m2 sail which really gets me blasting well. If the wind gets up a bit i switch to my 6 m2 and too be honest I don't really use any smaller sails ( at this stage). I am 70 kg.

So I reckon with you being slightly heavier, you at least need a 7 m2 sail.

btw if you are in the neighbourhood of anglesea let me know and you and try my gear and see if that works better for you. Ps I am only there some of the weekends.

Thanks for the info, yeah definitely the issue of back of board sinking and then over adjusting feet meant a nice swim.

Will look to purchase 7m sail and with other points seems useful maybe to have even larger sail to have options at lower wind.

Thanks again, appreciate advice. Keen to get going again. Back to the buy & sell page

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MvB said...
btw if you are in the neighbourhood of anglesea let me know and you and try my gear and see if that works better for you. Ps I am only there some of the weekends.

Thanks MvB. Back at work now but that sounds great. Which wind direction is a good one for there?

Non-planing on a very large board like your 200L is good fun and very doable but as soon as you try to do the same thing on a much smaller board they are very unstable off the plane.
More wind or more sail area will be the cure, get that board planing. 15 knots is the lower end of the wind you should be trying to go out in with that kit.
Good luck.