For a sport that heavily depends on one’s personal capability & preference to doing things, it’s very difficult to be specific on the guidelines. However there are certain profound techniques that can be adapted to improve your sailing. The tips laid down below are a few of the many essentials skills and tricks that have been long practiced by the professionals then passed down to others from time to time.
Enjoy the ride –
1. Whatever you do, keep the board flat.
Beach starting, getting planing, accelerating, keeping top speed, jibing.. A flat board is a stable board, and a flat board is a fast board. Here are a few examples when a flat board will help ;
Accelerating – Before you get into plane, it’s important to not move your back foot too close to the rails. Unless it’s really blowing, this action will upset all the efforts by the fin to push the board out of the water. Next time you’re on the water, put it right in the center and feel the difference.
Jibing – Sheet in hard when entering the jibe. A sail that is fully powered through the turn will result with the sailor having to counterbalance by putting more weight on the back of the tail causing it to sink i.e the board is not flat. This reduces the speed and consequently gets you off the plane. Oversheeting will cure this so that you can stand more forward of the board to keep the nose down without feeling like you’re about to get thrown forward.
Planing – In rough chops, keeping the board flat requires a bit of skill. Do this by pointing your toes up, as if you’re locking the footstraps to your feet. Otherwise the board will fly off uncontrollably and you will lose your speed.
2. Look where you’re going
You shoulder and body respond subconsciously to the movement of your head. This can’t be more simpler than when you’re driving a car – look out of the turn instead of watching what your hands are doing, and when you’re just going forward, well, look forward. Looking where you’re going is also a good practice to build up your confidence so that you can do all the tackings and jibings even without looking at it.
3. Stretch that arms and go ape!
There are more reasons to admire the physics of a monkey than you think there is. In light wind sailing, if you can’t hang off the boom, you won’t get to plane as fast as your other ape-looking mates. And in high wind jibe, going out of the turn without a simple hang on the boom will most likely send you off a catapult, or at least force you to sheet out and get off the plane. What a waste of a nice carve. Follow these simple rules below :
Hands – If at all possible, use overhand grip ( fingers over the boom ).
Ass – Get your ass as low as possible, lowering the center of your gravity.
Legs – Keep your front leg fairly straight, while you bend that back leg to get you as far away from the sail.
4. More downhaul please
The jury is still out on this one. But the idea is, in any condition when you can’t downhaul enough, you are better off with a bigger sail with more downhaul. Obviously this is easier said than done, at least for the majority of us the poor windsurfers!
On the base of the argument, more downhaul equals greater stability and this will help enormously to absorb any sudden gust of the wind. Also, modern sails requires more downhaul to give out its maximum potential i.e for smoother sail flip, correct center of effort, sail dynamics etc. If you need more power, release the outhaul for more ‘bag’ profile instead. If the wind picks up, give more downhaul & outhaul. And if the wind’s too light that you need to release too much downhaul, get a bigger sail.
5. Harness line – It’s nothing personal
Proper harness lines adjustment is vital to optimize your sailing. There are various non-scientific approach on positioning the harness lines, but none of them are accurate nor consistent enough to suit everyone’s need. We often heard that harness lines position is personal, yet we rarely see the professionals having their harness lines set too different from each other. If you’re looking at where to start, here’s how to do it;
1 - Put the harness lines somewhere where you feel comfortable
2 - Sail for a few rounds, then adjust so that you can comfortably sail no-hand, or so that you can feel equal pressure on your hands while sailing. Look at your sail, is it fully sheeted in? Probably not.
3 - When you finally find that spot, adjust the harness lines so that your front hand will feel slightly more pressure than your back hand. Again, look at your sail, now you can easily sheet in more just by leaning out i.e using your bodyweight instead of your hands.
Further explanation : It is hard to find an all-condition setup where you can comfortably sail without too much pressure on your hands, the back one especially. By putting the lines slightly back of the boom, you are ensuring that you will be using your body-weight to do all the hard work of sheeting in instead of your hands. You will also find that this setup to be the most comfortable too.
6. Steps to better jibing – less steps
There is no right or wrong in this. A carve jibe is still a carve jibe no matter how many steps do you take during the transition. But a fast and precise foot position will ensure that your jibe will more likely exit with full speed instead of slogging half the way. Look at the steps below and try it yourself.
- Ready to enter jibe at full speed
- Curving the board, oversheeting to reduce pull
- Front foot transition. Moving close to new position. Be quick!
- Sail flip and a hang on the boom (number 7)
- Front foot in the strap, back foot used to flatten the board.
- Sail away full speed.
As you noticed, the crucial part of the steps above are number 2, 3, 4. These are the parts where so many people squeeze too many footworks in, resulting with unstable board. So practice, practice & practice.
7. Sail flip – Put your hand where your head is
If this is as easy to remember as to say it, then more people would have their jibes all well done.
Before you flip that sail, slide your front hand towards the boom head.
Flip the sail then catch the opposite side of the boom with your back hand.
Easy? Well yes. Try it.
8. The art of number 7
This is how Antoine Albeau looks when he broke the world’s speed sailing record at the speed of 49.09 knots. And that, my friend, is an art. Look at how the legs, body and hands can be pictured as a reverse no. 7 hanging at the tip of the boom. Getting this number 7 right is as important as every cent you have spent on your gear, so learn to do it properly:
1- Fairly straight legs – Put the boom higher for a more straight stance.
2- Hands are stretched far away from the boom – Get longer harness lines.
Experiment with your equipments to get this number 7 stance and you shall be rewarded.
9. Watch more videos
Sometimes the best method of learning is by watching. Watch how professionals do it, give attention to the movement of their hands and legs, zoom in whenever possible. Any PWA Slalom Race will be a good startiing point.
10. Best tip ever :
At the end of the day, it’s the TOW (Time on Water) that really matters the most.
Thank you for reading and happy sailing!
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