Need the help of the gurus here.

Entered my first comp today, a long distance race.

Doing really good until the last leg towards the beach which was full downwind (rear wind ?).

I had to remove my back foot to try to keep steering the board in the right direction, so much that I ended up with a cramp in the front leg (trying to push the board downwind).

I guess this is because I very rarely sail on such a tack. But how can you keep planing in those conditions (and controlling the board).
My sail was totally opened, very tiring !

Any recommendations before next race ?

Hi there

Never sail directly downwind, always have some angle on the wind, and you will get lift off your Fin and maintain speed. If you go downwind, you lose most of your lift off your fin and hence stop planning. You may sail a little further, but you will plane and beat the others!!

Have fun

Warren in FIJI

Agree with that but when the race course requires it, how do you do it ?

For true downwind performance Sean, this should really help.

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I used to do a fair bit of racing and found it is best to have an adjustable outhaul and depending on what sort of board you are using, i used a formual board
i would put a centre foot strap on as well so three rear straps. with this set up you should still be able to keep planing directly down wind, the adjustable outhaul is very important .

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seanhogan said..

Agree with that but when the race course requires it, how do you do it ?

I know what you're talking about and its hard work planing deep. Your back leg turns to jelly from half squatting.
I don't have any advice except train for it. You can do half squat isometrics and full squats and lots of long downwinders on the water.

+1 for the adjustable outhaul.

Well, I'm no expert, but until the experts show up this might help. 1 & 2 only apply if there's enough wind to plane downwind, 4-6 only apply if you can set the rig up for it in advance (i.e. enough of the course is downwind). 7 obviously only if you have an adjustable outhaul.

1. As mentioned above, don't go dead downwind. Sail about 45 degrees higher, then gybe and come back the other way.
2. Pick up speed first, then bear away. Ideally you want the apparent wind to always be forward of a beam reach. So you point higher in lulls and lower in gusts.
3. If the sea isn't too lumpy take your back foot out of the strap. We get kind of addicted to footstraps, but often it's OK without them.
4. Boom relatively high
5. Harness lines long
6. Harness connectors touching each other on the boom rather than spread. Most people do this anyway, but while you can get away with spread harness lines up wind this will kill you downwind.
7. Release the outhaul if you can. Even in strong winds, having a bit of flexibility in the leech really helps. Going downwind the apparent wind can change faster than you can react, so you need the sail to be reacting for you.

Then there are techniques for avoiding burying the nose in a big chop, but whether that's an issue depends on what sort of board you have and the sea state.

You can put the back foot in the leeward rear strap or sail reverse stance but whatever you do it is hell trying to keep it altogether keeping it on the plane in really messy conditions. This last week has been a great test of sailing deep down wind for me and I've ended up with some wicked arm pump so not much help from me - your harness takes bugger all sail load. At a minimum try and keep your front foot in the straps otherwise you tend to get bounced off the board when planing quickly. it is a real precarious stance too as you need to be fairly upright and can be thrown off balance very quickly.

The only time you would ever sail directly downwind in a race is in non planing conditions, regardless of the board. This would also apply to many dinghy classes such as skiffs and cats. If you go direct downwind when its planing you will most times overtake the wind and lose power in the sail, then as board speed drops the sail will load up again and want to pull you over the front. Everyone always goes down on angles in planning conditions, its faster.

Im thinking and it did hurt maybe sail past the last 2 markers if you have room to better the angle or a bigger board fin and sail if possible rule of thunb down wind sailing carry a extra meter of sail when choosing your rig hope this helps dude

Try to use more your rig to bear away and steering than your feet. Eg. Tilt your mast forward and hang to your rear strap ( otherwise you'll be ending practicing the forward loop).
You need to have the sail very full as well.
Leeward strap is for the chickens

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cammd said..

The only time you would ever sail directly downwind in a race is in non planing conditions, regardless of the board. This would also apply to many dinghy classes such as skiffs and cats. If you go direct downwind when its planing you will most times overtake the wind and lose power in the sail, then as board speed drops the sail will load up again and want to pull you over the front. Everyone always goes down on angles in planning conditions, its faster.

It is not so obvious. Suppose that we have wind 25 knots.
Average board is planing possibly at 15 knots already.
That give you 10 knots apparent wind still pushing into your sail.

Completely another aspect is that in such instance your sail works like bag of potato not as airfoil.
Sail is constructed in such way for stream of air flowing laminar on both surfaces - like a wing.
Position 90 degree to the wind works like obstacle creating nothing but turbulence behind - an effect will be very unpleasant then.
To rectify the problem you could create hole in the middle of the sail and then such improved sail should be quite comfortable down the wind.
( similarly to the vent in parachute)

Don't know its an interesting theory. I do know I have had the window blow out on more than one sail and I can't say I thought it improved the performance in any way

thanks for the advice guys, and macro...

I'll keep on practising my downwind skills !!