Hello all,
i need some help to get back to windsurfing after around 15 years. I bought a second hand equipment which is a Naish Red line 6.5 and 7.6
Today I gave it a dry run in front of the garage. I have the original boom and mast for it. For the small sail I use the 430mast and 180+ boom. On the sail it's written Mast 430 and LUFF 452 and boom 192.
Sorry for asking stupid question but that would mean I take the 430 Mast and will use an extension and adjust it to 22cm right? If I do so I'm probably still 6-7cm short on bringing it down to the rollers and I have already a loose leach. I took some photos but unfortunately I can't upload them because I'm new here. Please help me to get back on a surfboard.
cheers Thomas

Hi Thomas, it sounds like your 6.5 sail has come out of the factory smaller than it should be. It's a common problem, I have several like this in my garage. You will just have to rig it by eye and your own judgement. Start by setting your extension to 16cm and see how that works out. ..It's probably shorter in the boom than it should be as well. So you will most likely have to make your boom shorter..

^^^ i would not think that common...
Thomas, having not sailed for a long time i think maybe look at some pics of a modern leech with full down haul and let us know

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Mark _australia said..
^^^ i would not think that common...
Thomas, having not sailed for a long time i think maybe look at some pics of a modern leech with full down haul and let us know

This^^^^

most sails these days rig with very loose leeches.

Saying it's come out of the factory smaller than it should be is a very wild stab in the dark at what the problem could be. It's not very common at all for sails to come out of the factory the wrong size, not by margins that would be that noticeable.

the only thing I would add, make sure the mast hasn't come apart at the join as you've put it in the mast pocket. I've seen a few people rig up and wonder why their sails leech has gone floppy prematurely. But like Mark said, have a look at how loose leeched modern sails are first. The measurements on the sail aren't usually that far off correct.

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Thomas75 said..
Hello all,
i need some help to get back to windsurfing after around 15 years. I bought a second hand equipment which is a Naish Red line 6.5 and 7.6
Today I gave it a dry run in front of the garage. I have the original boom and mast for it. For the small sail I use the 430mast and 180+ boom. On the sail it's written Mast 430 and LUFF 452 and boom 192.
Sorry for asking stupid question but that would mean I take the 430 Mast and will use an extension and adjust it to 22cm right? If I do so I'm probably still 6-7cm short on bringing it down to the rollers and I have already a loose leach. I took some photos but unfortunately I can't upload them because I'm new here. Please help me to get back on a surfboard.
cheers Thomas

I had 5.6, 6.5, 7.6 & 9.0 redline from 2007 and 2008. IIRC, the 5.6m had data on it which was a bit off, the others were ok.
The sails required a lot of downhaul, I had to buy one of those North/Duotone winch extensions.
As Subsonic said, make sure the mast is together properly. I always had to tape mine as they 2 halves always came apart when downhauling.

Post some more, then you will be able to post pictures.

Thanks you so much guys for you input. I will do it again today and will definitely the Mast for separation. I wasn't sure and actually I'm still not if such a "old" sail should have a loose leech line the sails these days. Thanks again guys and I will let you know...Cheers Thomas

So another dry run done. I checked the mast half's and they were good. So I increased the down haul and stopped about 3cm before the roller touch each other. So the loose leech went down to the third batten from the top. Unfortunately there is no mark on the sail which indicates the "right" amount of loose leech but it looks ok to me. I'm not confident enough to pull the remaining 3cm down. I rather adjust the extension one click up. And more down haul fixed the issue that the cam er always popped out. Now it's closer to the feeling I remember from back in the days ??. Really exiting to go back on the water. Thanks again guys. Much appreciated......any ideas to straighten one arm of a boom...? Just slightly bend. Came with the gear for free. Just a spare one. Maybe some Spare parts from Naish? Couldn't find anything in the web..
cheers Thomas

Bending the boom back will weaken it more just leave it as is. Aluminum chinook booms are not too expensive. A broken boom could get you a long swim.

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Thomas75 said..
So another dry run done. I checked the mast half's and they were good. So I increased the down haul and stopped about 3cm before the roller touch each other. So the loose leech went down to the third batten from the top. Unfortunately there is no mark on the sail which indicates the "right" amount of loose leech but it looks ok to me. I'm not confident enough to pull the remaining 3cm down. I rather adjust the extension one click up. And more down haul fixed the issue that the cam er always popped out. Now it's closer to the feeling I remember from back in the days ??. Really exiting to go back on the water. Thanks again guys. Much appreciated......any ideas to straighten one arm of a boom...? Just slightly bend. Came with the gear for free. Just a spare one. Maybe some Spare parts from Naish? Couldn't find anything in the web..
cheers Thomas

It is a full on race sail with like 7 or 8 battens right?

Looseness will come down a LOT further than third from top. My wave sails have looseness further down than that....

My no cam freeride has leech looseness to about 40cm above the clew. Keep pulling .... you will have a tiny bit of loose leech to the batten above the boom.


Aluminium boom? They are tempered so once bent it will snap, its a throwaway.

Hi Thomas. The left field here

How thick are your extension clips ?. Have you measured the mast + extension to see how long luff actually is ?. If your clips are thick, deduct ~2cm from the downhaul recommendation (or add it, depending on your perspective). See mine below.


Nb/ With wave and freeride sails, you have to also adjust and correct for headcap extension, but that's for another forum section

unfortunately I didn't measured the LUF my self. That's something I want to do next time. I measured the needed extension from the bottom of the extension to where the mast get in contact with. Not the bottom of the clip. I think the part musst be correct. With the loose leech is interesting. It just doesn't look right to me but what do I know ??...I might pull it a bit further down. Unfortunately the weather isn't good right now otherwise I would give it a try on the water. But thanks to everyone for the input. Down haul was definitely key to my issue. It fixed the "not want to stay in place" cams as well. Thanks again..

The boom will be a write off then..

When you get on the water is when you'll really be able to tell if the downhaul is right. If you get out there and the sail feels soggy/powerless and theres lots of leech flogging going on(when sheeted in) then the downhaul is probably over done. If the sail keeps burying the nose of the board, feels heavy but no forward drive and no leech flutter then it needs more downhaul.

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Thomas75 said..
unfortunately I didn't measured the LUF my self. That's something I want to do next time. I measured the needed extension from the bottom of the extension to where the mast get in contact with. Not the bottom of the clip. I think the part musst be correct. With the loose leech is interesting. It just doesn't look right to me but what do I know ??...I might pull it a bit further down. Unfortunately the weather isn't good right now otherwise I would give it a try on the water. But thanks to everyone for the input. Down haul was definitely key to my issue. It fixed the "not want to stay in place" cams as well. Thanks again..

The boom will be a write off then..

If the cams kept coming off, I'd say you didnt have nowhere near enough downhaul.
When you get around to taking pictures, include one holding the mast at the top of the sail looking down to the foot. This will show the amount of twist in the sail.