Just PM'd you Sue

sboardcrazy said...
Is sailboarding suppose to feel pretty effortless if you aren't overpowered and set up right?

Yes.

When I'm just cruising around I can be hooked in and have one hand on the boom just resting gently with very minimal input, the other hand I can let dangle, scratch myself, adjust hair, whatever.

let someone else sail your gear or have a look at it to see what the problem is.

Last summer I swapped rigs with one of less experienced mates and he said "wow your rig is so much easier to sail."

His downhaul was too loose and his harness lines were off by a bit. Not that much but enough to make it uncomfortable.

It depends on the conditions and if your equipment matches.
If its bad chop, I dont get that feeling. If the board or sail is too big, I dont get it.

You also have to get the board running free and that involves picking the right path through the waves and flexing your legs to smooth things out.
Everything has to feel balanced and the rig feels light. It feels like there is very little resistance - you are going fast but dont feel there is a lot of power involved.

joking

terminal said...

It depends on the conditions and if your equipment matches.
If its bad chop, I dont get that feeling. If the board or sail is too big, I dont get it.

You also have to get the board running free and that involves picking the right path through the waves and flexing your legs to smooth things out.
Everything has to feel balanced and the rig feels light. It feels like there is very little resistance - you are going fast but dont feel there is a lot of power involved.

I'm often on too big a board for the chop and only now starting to pick a line through the worst of it.. I've been picking a line to ski down a slope for years & to find a spot to gybe so I don't know why it took so long to use it for chop..dur..

Assuming your sail is rigged right (enough downhaul and appropriate outhaul), there is alot to be gained in general comfort and speed and feel (fun factor) by tuning boom height, mast base position and harness position. Also to some extent foot strap position. There is a bunch of guides for setting these up, but I find that they don't really work for me. I really have to go by feel.... though the guides make a good starting point.

I find that moving base forward and/or moving boom down will pull you more onto your front foot. This can help if you feel you are constantly having to lean forward to unweight the fin/back of the board particularly in light to moderate conditions or pointing high. If you go too low on the boom you take too much weight off the sail, and the board will ride heavy in the water. A higher boom with base further forward may free/liven the board up for more speed and less drag (and more fun). This tends to go against what some people claim that it is faster to move base back to have less board in the water... so perhaps I have it wrong? But it works for me.

Harness lines should be adjusted for even weight on arms for comfort, but if you have not got the sail rigged right, it can be difficult to achieve this as the effort in the sail can move around alot. If you are having trouble with harness line position, consider adding more down/out haul and see if it gets better. Too much outhaul and the sail gets very twitchy, but you can go fairly far with downhaul.

I personally find that I rarely rig my gear right first time. I normally come in to make adjustments atleast once during the first 10-15 minutes. I am normally adjusting boom height/base position. Once I have it right I can sail comfortably for hours. Have sailed well over 100kms (in wide varing conditions from 15-35 knots)several times and felt fine to do another 50 or so if time/wind permitted. Had I not got my gear right I would have been wrecked after 30kms.

I am no expert... just reporting what works for me, and it may not work for others. I am sure I could do things better than I am doing, but I find that I am generally able to achieve a fairly comfortable setup in most conditions/equipment. I would certainly encourage you to experiment a bit with the setup (particularly boom height and base position) and see what makes it better/worse for you.

Hope I don't get flamed for bad advice!!

I find that I prefer my harness lines on the shorter side which goes against current recommendations. The only time I like them longer is if I am going out fully powered and going for speed on a very broad reach as it allows me to get my weight further out/back from the sail (which can remain more upright) for better control and ability to hold alot of sail power. But when I do this, I tend to find the upwind sailing is less comfortable.

For general sailing (reaching), I prefer shorter lines for comfort and I sail a more upright stance (straight body at hips) and can comfortably point high upwind. I would not suggest lifting the boom (on its own) as a way to counteract long harness lines. As you lift the boom, with the mast raked back, you are moving the centre of effort of the harness line towards the back of the board, which will move your weight onto the back foot, and depending on board/fin could be uncomfortable, and hard to keep the board flat and may induce spinout particularly in lighter wind or pointing upwind.

I am running 22-28 adjustable lines and about 5'10-11. I run them on the shorter side (24??) for general sailing. When going for speed I run them towards the longer end. Where I sail, I generally go for speed on a broad reach and upwind other direction, so run short on one side and long on the other.

If you find the shorter lines more comfortable (I do), I would run with them. If you do want to run the longer lines, and want to lift the boom, try moving the mast base forward an inch or two and see if that feels a bit better. This should counteract the higher boom which is pushing you back on the board. Can you shorten the long lines you have?

The big benefit of long lines is control of board and sail (being further away from sail you can use your weight more efficiently and get lower for board control), which is mostly needed in chop or high wind. If control is not an issue (flatter water, not overpowered), shorter lines allow you to get more of your weight onto the rig in a more upright comfortable stance (again dependant on base and boom position).

I've always been told to keep your harness lines no more than about a fist width apart. If they are too far apart, they restrict the movement of the sail so that it doesn't react as well to changing wind conditions. I'm a little old school and prefer shorter lines, not sure of the measurement just shorter than most, but I do use a waist harness.

sboardcrazy said...

I know I don't plane as early as I should and I don't think my gear is set up correctly.I feel uncomfortable more often than not.

A technique I use to plane earlier, especially if the wind is marginal, is to scissor the board as hard as you can.

The board lifts out of the water a little by reducing the area of the board that is in contact with the water.

If you have sufficient forward momentum, you should, hopefully, get on the plane.

Cheers

albers said...

sboardcrazy said...

I know I don't plane as early as I should and I don't think my gear is set up correctly.I feel uncomfortable more often than not.

A technique I use to plane earlier, especially if the wind is marginal, is to scissor the board as hard as you can.

The board lifts out of the water a little by reducing the area of the board that is in contact with the water.

If you have sufficient forward momentum, you should, hopefully, get on the plane.

Cheers
What up or downwind?

sboardcrazy said...

albers said...

sboardcrazy said...

I know I don't plane as early as I should and I don't think my gear is set up correctly.I feel uncomfortable more often than not.

A technique I use to plane earlier, especially if the wind is marginal, is to scissor the board as hard as you can.

The board lifts out of the water a little by reducing the area of the board that is in contact with the water.

If you have sufficient forward momentum, you should, hopefully, get on the plane.

Cheers
What up or downwind?

By scissoring the board, I mean pushing out and pulling back with both legs (they must both be in the footstraps) in a motion similar to the operation of a pair of scissors. The faster/more aggressively you do this, the easier it is to get on the plane (bearing the rig off a little at the same time may also help).

albers said...


By scissoring the board, I mean pushing out and pulling back with both legs (they must both be in the footstraps) in a motion similar to the operation of a pair of scissors. The faster/more aggressively you do this, the easier it is to get on the plane (bearing the rig off a little at the same time may also help).

Most people call this 'pumping'
And yes it does work

If you want to play with your harness lines without cost, tie a short loop of rope to your boom between your existing harness line mounts and so have a shorter line you can compare with your existing lines while sailing along. You should be able to easily change between the harness lines as you are going along to work out what works best for you. When you have worked out the length you want you can just buy a fixed set.

sboardcrazy said...

Iceman said...

If you want to play with your harness lines without cost, tie a short loop of rope to your boom between your existing harness line mounts and so have a shorter line you can compare with your existing lines while sailing along. You should be able to easily change between the harness lines as you are going along to work out what works best for you. When you have worked out the length you want you can just buy a fixed set.

Good idea.. I've ordered a set of adjustable Neil Pryde ones..Hopefully they will be better than the crappy ones I had. I've tried them on demo days so I know they work.

Find them to be great lines (NP) - you won't be disappointed.