So....sailing high to windward on longboard gear. have been out practicing and have come to the conclusion that setting the harness lines back a smidge allows for more flexibility in fine tuning pointing angle.

as the wind changes it seems easier to adjust the rig position if I don't choke the mast. if I need to foot a little I can otherwise I round up with wind changes.
wondering on the brains trust view

Choking the mast! This is def a heavy weather topic.



If your leading arm is up to it then put your lines slightly back as I've found you can get your body and the sail into an optimum position pointing hard. Having lines back and sailing for any length of time on a broad reach e.g. a NM run can be taxing on the body so it's should be a balance between what you're wanting or are doing the most of. Whilst sail trim important pointing, board trim just as critical so as much as it pains to, I really try to keep my front leg straight and hips twisted forward which in turn keeps the board flat through the water which utilises the leeward rail to assist with pointing.

cheers sausage, so i'm on the right path.

broadreach is not such an issue for me as I'm generally going hard upwind or downwind and I can use the centreboard trim to tune the stance or just muscle things a little more on a broad reach. sounds like the slightly back thing is the right path.

board trim are you talking about short board trim or longboard,

on the longboard I'm railing the board fairly hard. depending on wind I've either got my back foot pushing against the centreboard knob or in stronger winds it's further out on the rail with the front leg controlling board roll and yaw. I am finding that swinging hips forward and rolling my front shoulder forward seems to feel quicker.

I need to check out the better guys to have a look at their stance.

What do you guys mean by 'choking the mast'?

Hmmm saltyheaven?

choking the mast?

surely a windup...

in sailing sometimes you hear people talking about choking the sail which is when they either oversheet or pinch to high.

I thought it a fun play on words to call it choking the mast because on longboards you adjust the mast position when steering upwind. really just choking the sail and loosing drive upwind.

Gotcha. I'd normally use ' choking ' in relation to a jib/main slot, hence the query.