As we discovered in the previous article:

In a fleet of 50 boats, roughly 4-5 sailors will get a great start, another 10 will get an OK start and the rest of the fleet will get a bad start. There is usually not enough “clean air” for everyone to have room to get a great start.

Knowing the theory of how great starts are set up is important and consists of 4 factors. Great starts involve mastering these factors:

1. Knowing the possible places to start on a line
2. Working out which end is favoured
3. Getting a transit
4. Timing and anticipating the gun

1. Knowing the Possible Places to Start On A Line

For simplicity, a startline can be divided in to 5 areas.

• Boat end Starboard start
• Middle of the line Starboard start
• Pin end Starboard start
• Pin end Port start
• Boat end Port start

Typically, when starting on port tack sailors look for a pin-end start to travel to the right side of the course and/or reduce the number of upwind tacks. Starting in the middle of the line on port is usually a result of having to dip behind Starboard sailors, and thus for simplicity, the line can be just divided in to pin-end and boat-end for port starting.

2. Working Out Which End is Favoured

The most crucial part of the start is being able to quickly and accurately work out which area of the line is the best to start on. A line can be favoured in different areas for more than one reason:

• The wind direction favours a particular end of the line
• The position of the first mark favours a particular end of the line
• A geographical feature or other change effects the wind on a particular side of the course

HOW DO WE QUICKLY TEST THE LINE FOR STARBOARD/PORT FAVOUR?

When testing a startline, keep it simple. Look for ‘major’ advantages; you are not able to pick 1-2 degree changes by eye.

Boat or Pin End?

A quick and easy way to test whether the line is boat, middle or pin end favoured is to sail to a spot about 2-3m directly downwind of the starboard and on Starboard tack, begin a short upwind run from that mark. Look at the angle you are sailing out of the line. If you are able to cross the startline within 10-15m of the starboard you can ‘generally’ say the line is boat favoured. If you take nearly 20-30m to cross the startline from 2-3m downwind of the boat then the line is more favoured towards the pin of the line. Figure 2A shows this drill being performed.

Remember you are only looking for ‘major’ differences between the favoured ends of the line. The distances shown in blue in Figure 2A should be measured by eye ‘roughly’. On a planing windsurfer you travel too fast to be able to measure individual degrees or metres on the water, so your aim here is to just be able to tell whether the line is boat or pin-end favoured.

Repeat this same drill on port tack from the pin end of the line. Assuming the wind hasn’t changed dramatically since your test at the boat-end, using deduction you should be able to get a better idea of which end of the line is favoured.

*NB. If a line can be crossed easily on Port tack, then the PIN-END will be favoured if you decide to start on Starboard.

Position of the Marks:

A good race director will set the top mark directly upwind of the startline. As we know, courses are not always perfect and marks can sometimes drift, so it’s important you always check upwind from the centre of the startline how the first mark sits in relation to the startline. If the mark is placed dramatically to the left or right side of the course, you may wish to change your start position to get toward the particular side of the course the mark is placed in quicker.

Favoured Side of the Course:

Every location is different and often times there can be a favoured side of the course because of a:

• A geographical feature (ie, a mountain, shore or river entrance along one side of the course)
• A tidal feature(ie, a deep channel on one side of the course); or
• A general wind phenomenon (ie, a seabreeze with less wind out to sea)

If there is a majorly favoured side of the course due to one of the above factors you should investigate whether to change your start position to take advantage and sail to the favoured side of the course quickest.

In Figure 3A a windward/leeward course with a reach mark is being used. The line is slightly port favoured (notice the direction of the wind) and Sailor 2 has started at the pin end on starboard tack. The first mark has been placed dramatically to the right side of the course, and Sailor 1 has seen this and tacked on to Port for a boat-end port start taking him to the right side of the course quicker and taking advantage of the better angle on Port tack.

This is an example of when a startline may have been Pin-End, Port favoured, but getting to the right side of the course may have been more important, so a boat-end Port start could be utilised.

Relative Abilities:

Something that is often overlooked but is still a crucial factor is understanding and knowing your abilities against other sailors in the fleet. It might not be possible to line-up against every sailor before a race start or you may have never sailed against this fleet before, but where possible, note your pointing angle and speed relative to the sailors you consider your main rivals in the fleet.

It is not always a good idea to start in a position which may give you a direct disadvantage against a rival sailor. An example of this is someone who sails very fast upwind but at a low angle. If that sailor was to start above the line on starboard against a sailor who sailed slower, but pointed much higher, he may not be able to clear the higher pointing sailor and have to dip below them, thus negating the extra speed.

In this instance a better tactic would have been to start just below this high-pointing, slower sailor to blast with extra speed off the startline and be in clear air even with the lower angle upwind.

One of the secrets to a great start is to not have better sailors in close proximity to you who can take your clean air and/or force you to tack early. If you sail in a regular fleet you should have a good idea who the better sailors are and know their strongpoints.

By knowing who the stronger sailors are, you can also identify the WEAKER sailors. When jostling for positions on the startline, you can often find gaps on the line to accelerate in to where the weaker sailors are positioned.

3. Getting A Transit

Once you’ve ascertained where you think you will be starting on the line, it is now important to get a TRANSIT of the startline. A transit is an imaginery line that runs through the startline to a marker on the shore so that at any point you can work out where you are on the startline relative to this marker.

To get your transit, park yourself at the startboat (either on the inside of it if it is a big boat, or on the upwind, outside of it if you can see through the boat to the pin-end buoy standing on your board) and line yourself up with the pin-end buoy and the flagpole on the boat. Imagine a piece of string between each end of the line then extend this mental string all the way to a clearly visible landmark on the horizon. Now that you have that marker on the shore, drift upwind/downwind a few metres and get an idea of how that marker changes in relation to the line.

Getting a reference to your shore marker above and below the line will help if you need to sail over/under someone on the line during the pre-start.

The transit becomes very important in larger fleets with longer startlines. The larger the fleet, generally the ‘transit-sag’ becomes bigger.

The transit-sag effect is that the sailors in the middle of the line will drop 3-4m below the level of the line because they believe they are over the line. This is what makes a ‘middle of the line, starboard start’ quite famous as in planing conditions you can sail over the top of these sailors taking their clean air and creating a gap for you to accelerate in to.

4. Timing & Anticipating the Gun

Syncing your watch correctly with the starter is extremely important. A planing board travels at 8m per second, so if you sync your watch 1 second out you are throwing away 8m at the start which is a huge margin.

The windier it gets, the slower and more distorted sound travels as well as the more difficult it is for the starters on the boat to put the flag up and down. There can always be discrepancies between the sounding of the gun and the flag hitting the top of the flagpole. To make it easier on yourself, stay as close to the starboat as practical for the first warning signal and check the sync on the next signal to make any corrections. If you are downwind 100m from the starboat, by the time the sound of the horn reaches you, you are 1-2 seconds out of sync!

Anticipate the Gun.

Having your watched synced is extremely important for the final step in the ‘great start’. As mentioned earlier, in planing conditions, boards travel at 8m/sec, which makes major changes in direction very difficult. Formula boards are particularly unresponsive when you going from a broad reach to a tight upwind angle as you do when you are running the startline on Starboard tack. It might take you as long as 3 seconds to get up to a good upwind angle out of the start and as long as 8 seconds to reach full speed and angle.

For this reason, in planing conditions (only!) if you are running down the startline you should ‘anticipate’ the starting gun and go on -1 seconds.

Yes, go on -1 seconds.

Why? Firstly because on the formula boards you require the extra second to begin rounding up in to the wind and secondly, because that extra second could give you the extra advantage to the sailors around you on the line, getting your nose in front of them and giving them dirty air instead of them doing it to you!

The steps to a correct buoy rounding are:

1. Line in to the buoy
2. Unhooking from the harness for control
3. Shift of body weight to manoeuvre around the buoy
4. Pumping to accelerate once the buoy is rounded

1. Line in to the Buoy

BOTTOM BUOY

Rounding the bottom buoy, whether a gate or a single mark, to start the next upwind leg, the line you take in to the buoy will determine your line out of the buoy (as you round it). Starting the next windward leg it is important to get to your maximum upwind angle as soon as possible to gain a safe-leeward position upwind. Sailors behind you will find it difficult to pass you to windward sailing in your dirty air, however if you round the buoy too tight and take longer to start pointing on the new leg you create a space where sailors behind you could get an advantage if they round the buoy tighter.

Figure 1A shows the RIGHT and WRONG lines you can take in to the bottom buoy. The RIGHT line is to head slightly deeper in the last 20-30m before the buoy travelling a few metres below the buoy and then aggressively turning upwind as you round the buoy to make a very tight angle around the buoy. The WRONG line is to head straight to the buoy and as formula boards turn much slower than waveboards it is very difficult to change direction so quickly and you will take a few metres after the buoy to get to your optimum upwind angle.

Figure 1B shows the WRONG line taken in to a buoy which creates a space upwind of the sailor and  the buoy which sailors behind who round the buoy correctly can use to their advantage to gain positions on the next upwind leg. To protect a lead you must take the RIGHT line around the buoy to keep all sailors behind and to leeward of you making it difficult for them to pass you in your dirty air or forcing them to tack away.

The actual distance in metres between the RIGHT and WRONG lines is only approx 4-5m difference. This is not an exact figure but merely an educated guess that the sailor will judge themselves on the water nearing the buoy. When other sailors are in close proximity you must obey all the normal sailing rules and choose the best line in to the buoy that is available given the circumstances.

TOP BUOY

Rounding the top buoy does not require a particular line in to the buoy. Techniques involved in rounding the top buoy will be discussed in Section 3.

In Figure 2A two sailors approach the bottom buoy. Sailor 2 will not likely get clear ahead before the buoy and will have to give Sailor 1 ‘mark-room’, which essentially allows Sailor 1 to pass him to round the buoy.

In this instance, the best option is for Sailor 2 to slow down dramatically, let Sailor 1 gain a distance of 10-15m ahead and then ‘ooch’ downwind as far as possible below the buoy to round extremely tight on the buoy. If you put a little pressure on Sailor 1 they will often take a very tight line in to the buoy and have to round the buoy very wide, creating a space for you to attack on the upwind like in Figure 1B.

Figure 2B shows the path Sailor 2 should take if given this opportunity by the mistake of Sailor 1.

2 & 3. Unhook for Control & Shift Weight Forward

BOTTOM BUOY

Rounding the bottom buoy in medium to strong wind conditions it is important that you UNHOOK FROM THE HARNESS. Distinct changes in direction on windsurfing boards with large fin sizes creates a large spike in load on the fin which usually causes the board to excessively rail, the nose of the board to lift and become unstable and the board to slow down very quickly. The stronger the wind gets the more this will have an effect and sailors can actually be at risk of crashing due to the behaviour of the board when the fin is maximum loaded.

To help with control, unhook from the harness and keep your legs slightly bent and body weight forward to keep the nose of the board down and keep the speed up. You should be unhooking from the harness 2-4 seconds before you reach the buoy.

As you round the buoy, tilt the rig back aggressively as in doing a tack to get the board to point as soon as you round the buoy.

In lighter winds or if your line in to the buoy is a little too tight, you can throw in a few pumps and ‘ooch’ the board downwind (losing a bit of speed) to get yourself deeper than the buoy to have a good line close to the buoy when you round it. These extra few pumps will mean you are already out of the harness and have your body weight forward for when you round the buoy.

TOP BUOY

Rounding the upwind buoy and heading to a downwind leg requires footwork and position of the rig to get the board to foot off aggressively downwind. With your front foot, pull up in the strap, lean the rig forward and shift your bodyweight forward for a few seconds while the board turns downwind.

This is the same technique as initiating a gybe, except that the back foot does not move from the back footstrap as in a gybe. This is a ‘sail by feel’ technique and requires the sailor to feel the movement of the board under their feet and apply more pressure when necessary needed to push the board.

4. Pumping to Accelerate

BOTTOM BUOY

In planing conditions it is important to put in a strong 3-6 pumps after rounding the buoy to get the best angle upwind after the buoy and help accelerate after the change in direction. By pumping and going for maximum height after the buoy, you will make it difficult for the sailors behind you who will usually have to foot-off to get out of your dirty air and lose considerable ground.

In very strong winds it may not always be beneficial to pump however sometimes making 1 pump as you hook yourself in to the harness is good for acceleration.

TRAINING DRILLS.

Training for bottom buoy roundings is very easy and requires little setup.

If you have access to a buoy, place one anywhere in the water.

DRILL 1

1-      Practice approaching the buoy from a normal downwind angle 50m from the buoy. As you get 20-30m from the buoy, head deeper to get 4-5m below the normal line in to the buoy then using the techniques discussed above, round the buoy.

2-      After rounding the buoy, sail upwind for 20 seconds to practice getting to maximum height and speed quickly after the buoy.

3- Repeat 10 roundings on one tack, then 10 roundings on the other tack. (Despite most courses having port rounding of the buoys, with gate courses you will inevitably need to be skilled in round buoys both directions).

DRILL 2

1- With a partner, repeat the same as Drill 1 but start the run to the buoy from 150m away. Run in close proximity with your partner, fighting to see who can get to the buoy first. 30m from the buoy make a decision about who will arrive at the buoy first.

2- If you have overlap nearing the buoy, force yourself downwind as in the techniques discussed and try and hold your height and position around the buoy.
If you are behind, practice the techniques in Section 1.

3- After rounding the buoy, sail upwind for 30 seconds to practice holding your position with a sailor behind or in front of you. 

4- Repeat 10 roundings on one tack, then 10 roundings on the other tack. (Despite most courses having port rounding of the buoys, with gate courses you will inevitably need to be skilled in round buoys both directions).

Final Notes:

If you do not have the ability to use a buoy, you can practice Drill 1 with an imaginary buoy; just pick a spot on the water to practice the techniques. Be conscious of starting the manoeuvre on the exact spot on the water you have chosen.

Also remember that in the Windsurfing Appendix B rules (which we use), we are ALLOWED to touch the buoys.

1. Downhaul Settings
2. Outhaul Settings
3. Batten Tuning
4. Board Setup
5. Boom Setup
6. Technique

1. Downhaul Settings:

All formula sails work best when rigged to the specs on the sail using the correct mast for that sail (except of course when brands print the incorrect sail specs!). In the case of strong winds, it usually is ok to pull on an extra 2-3mm downhaul but very rarely does it help to pull on more than this!

• A sail which is underdownhauled is unstable, heavy, has no acceleration, feels sluggish and creates a lot of backhand pressure which often creates a lot of spinout on your fin due to the draft being too far back.
• An overdownhauled sail on the other hand becomes twitchy, unstable, unable to point and feels unresponsive.

Although the tendency for the guys who’ve joined the formula racing from years of slalom racing is to just pull more downhaul, once you’ve exceeded the max-downhaul point for your sail you are actually making it more difficult by pulling more downhaul. Overdownhauling your sail can do two things; 1) release the pressure on the nose of your board, making the board fly out of the water and 2) make the sail feel very twitchy and unstable in your hands.

If you are using a widesleeve modern sail, look at the two battens above and below the boom when rigging. If either of these is ’s’ bending towards the luff then you are most likely using too much downhaul.

For the best performance, rig you sail to specs and work on the next 5 points to get control of your gear; downhaul is probably the last thing you should resort to in strong winds.

2. Boom Settings:

OUTHAUL:

Outhaul plays a MAJOR role in control in high winds. Put your boom out an extra hole (or two) and make sure your outhaul lines are setup that you can pull a lot of outhaul on. There is a point you will reach that you will start to lose angle with this amount of outhaul pulled on but it will give you control. As you improve, you can start to use less outhaul in the same winds which will give you better angle. See the Batten Tuning section below for more ideas on improving your use of outhaul for control.

HARNESS LINES:

Longer harness lines will help in strong winds. Most top sailors are using fixed lines despite the popularity of adjustable lines in different styles of windsurfing such as RS:X and slalom. A good option is to run adjustable lines that stay relatively fixed (ie, are hard to adjust on the fly) as these can be adjusted in between races on the beach fairly easily but still are stiff enough to not slip during races and become too long. A good example is the Neilpryde Adjustable harness lines which are extremely difficult to adjust on the water without breaking the clips, but stay in the length you adjust them to forever if you change them on the beach.

BOOM HEIGHT:

This is an interesting one. A lot of people advise lowering the boom in strong winds for control. This is a technique used in slalom boards where you are not relying on fin and rail pressure to the extent we are on formula boards. Lowering your booom 1-2cm may help for control, but lowering it any more than 1-2cm will actually make sailing more difficult!

Why, you ask?

Lowering the boom shortens the triangle you make between your boom, your arms holding the boom and your legs touching the board. This is the centre of lateral resistance and effects your power-to-weight ratio on a board. A heavier, taller sailor with longer arms, will usually be much faster and more in control in high winds (if all equipment and skill levels are the same). By lowering the boom you are reducing the amount of leverage you have on the board and it actually makes it more difficult to hold on to the sail in strong winds believe it or not. It is liken to the effect of using a board with a smaller tail in high winds, you don’t get the same leverage which makes holding the rig down much easier.

3. Batten Tuning:

This may suprise a lot of people, but many top pros are doing some tricky things with their battens to give them more control in stronger winds and sometimes allow them to hang on to a bigger rig than others out on the course.

When you get very overpowered, most people’s tendency is to pull on a lot of outhaul. This moves the drive of the sail further back which can sometimes make you lose angle upwind and make your sail feel very twitchy. Although most of us would happily exchange a little angle to gain some control, on certain sails it is possible to have both!

Find a piece of 8mm tube batten around 40-60cm long. 8mm is the same diameter as the large section (the opposite  end to the thin tip section). Push this piece of batten in to the batten pocket above the boom whilst still having the original batten in place. With a bit of effort, there is usually enough room to get both pieces in to the batten pocket.

What this does is stiffen the back section of your sail dramatically, which keeps the draft forward on your sail and gives you much more stability. More stability means you might be able to sail in strong winds with the outhaul pulled on only 90%, not 100%!

Generally speaking this is only necessary in some brands of sails. From our experience, Neilpryde and Point-7 sails which have more luff curve than other brands have more neutral back hand pressure and probably wouldn’t benefit from this extra batten. Gaastra, North, MauiSails and Severne sails which have a less radical luff shape would be better suited to this idea.

For extra stability you can even add this extra batten to the batten below the boom; with two extra battens in (above and below the boom) you get very good stability in the top end of the windrange however you may lose some sail shape in light winds, so remember to take them out on the light wind days.

4. Board Setup:

MAST TRACK:

The best thing you can do in strong winds which will help the most is to move your track forward. Usually more wind means more waves/chop and much more fin pressure, so the nose of your board will usually start to lift and that’s where you can get in to trouble. Move your track 1-3cm forward and test your board once again. If you can hold it down, keep it there, if not, try it even more forward. Don’t be afraid to move the track all the way to the front, if that is the only way you can keep your board down, then go for it.

Note that the further you move your track forward the harder it is to sail downwind sometimes. This is because with the track all the way forward the nose keeps very flat and downwind in chop it can be harder to get the nose clear of the waves to stop it catching. It is usually much better to be in control upwind rather than downwind in strong winds as there are features on the board that can help with the downwind more than upwind (see below).

FOOTSTRAPS:

Try running your back footstraps a little looser. This will allow you to get your foot much deeper in to the strap which is the equivalent of having a footstrap 5cm further in to towards the middle of the board. If you can’t handle downwind in the outside strap then get in to the chicken strap…

…in high winds you should ALWAYS run a chicken strap. Even if your board is comfortable and your skill level is up to allow you to sail downwind without it (which is usually faster), it’s nice to have one on for the time in between races where you are cruising around; it saves quite a bit of energy.

Find a nice light strap and make sure it is SUPER tight. Having a loose strap for a chicken strap is counter productive as you don’t want your foot completely flat on the back of the board. It is much better to be on the balls of your feet so you can control the railing of your board to help dodge rogue swells and compensate when you get out of control. The tighter you have your chicken strap the more control you have of your board; aim to only have the beginning of your arch in the strap, not your entire foot.

Even better than a chicken strap is a DOUBLE CHICKEN STRAP. These were made popular by the Mike’s Labs boards in San Francisco, who’s owners were used to racing in the strong winds and vicious chop of the Bay area. A double chicken strap allows you to have a strap closer to half way between the outside strap and the centre of your board instead of just being in the middle. This gives the best placement for leverage and control whereas in the middle like a normal chicken strap is a little bit unbalanced.

The new 2010 Exocet and JP FW boards have a double chicken strap feature which is sure to be very popular as it also means the chicken strap can be utilised in much lighter winds as it can sometimes be more effective. Traditionally most other brands have shied away from double chicken straps as it means extra plugs need to be built in to the board which adds weight (as does the extra strap).

BOARD CHOICE:

Sorry to break it to everyone but there are certain boards which are designed for high winds better than others. As a ‘general’ guide, here are the boards we’ve found to be the best in stronger winds:

• Gaastra Vapor (all versions)
• Starboard LWR
• Exocet Warp (2010)
• JP 100 Pro
• Starboard F159, F160 and F161

These boards usually have a combination of vee the length of the board (often all the way to the finbox), wide tails for leverage and concaves to give a smoother ride over the swells. The nose shape also plays a role in a boards abilities in strong winds; all these boards have nose shapes designed to handle strong winds and chop very easily.

5. Fins:

Fins play a bigger role than anyone could imagine. It is simply not as simple as saying “I should use a smaller fin” when you go out in strong winds.

You should pay much more attention to the characteristics of fins. A great high wind fin will have a lot of ‘twist’ in the tip. Twist allows the fin to depower when it gets overloaded. Much like the leech of a sail spills off the power in a gust, the tip of the fin spills off the power and stops you getting out of control. The more twist you have in a fin, usually the more controllable it is in high winds if the foil is working, however it is then at the expense of angle upwind if you have too much twist.

Raking your fin (less upright) also helps create more ‘geometric twist’ in a fin, however having a more upright fin will keep the nose of the board down a little. It’s a catch 22. Older style fins like a Deboichet R13 were commonly sailed at +8cm (2.5 degrees from vertical) which helped keep the nose down in stronger winds as this is a fairly upright fin, however, these fins didn’t have a lot of twist and were quite stiff compared to newer fins so aren’t as controllable in strong winds as the new shapes available. The rake can sometimes be a little confusing for some people, so our recommendation is to find the rake (consult your fin maker) that suits your board in light/med winds; you should be safe using that same rake in strong winds but add a little more twist to the fin for control.

Next comes the stiffness. In modern formula boards of the past 4 seasons with wide tails of +78cm at the one-foot-off mark, stiff fins will be the worst thing you can use for control. In the old days (<2005) everyone thought you’d need a stiffer fin in high winds as the soft fins would have too much power. This really isn’t the case as usually stiff fins (from the old days) have much less twist and are very bitey under your feet.

A new, modern, soft fin such as a VMG Blade, Kashy, Virus, Ifju, Z fin or others in certain circumstances create a lot of ‘vertical lift’ under the board which helps keep the nose down and have a better ratio of twist and flex which will help control the board in strong winds. Whereas a lot of guys used to change down to 66cm fins a few years ago, a modern fin will allow you to use even a 70cm in stronger winds than you could imagine.

If you want to learn more about fins then check our previous article on “Everything You Should Know About Formula Fins”.

6. Technique:

Technique plays a major role in all wind strengths in Formula Windsurfing. Where it makes the largest difference, is in strong winds as good technique will help keep you on the water.

The most important part of technique is your STANCE. Arms should be straight, and your body should be hiked out as far as possible from the sail. To hike even, further, you can even try tilting your head to windward as this increases the hike your torso gets. A few points to remember when hiking:

• Straight arms
• Shoulders rolled forward (to make your arms longer)
• Front leg ‘relatively’ straight and back leg slightly bent (see above photo)
• Forcefully arch your torso backward (it doesn’t need to twist forward, but its ok if you do)
• Tilt your head to windward to get the torso even further out.

The further you can hike, the better ability you have to absorb the gusts as they hit you and create more leverage against your sail and fin, which helps prevent you getting slammed. This also goes back to the ‘lowering boom’ argument from earlier. My experiences suggest lowering the boom any lower than 1-2cm will take away the leverage you have from your stance and make holding down the sail even harder. Move the track forward, before you move your boom.

Technique Over Chop:

Finally, the biggest liability for sailors in high wind is keeping control of the board as you go over chop and swell. Usually, when overpowered, your board rails excessively at the top of a swell and then spins downwind aggressively as the wind gets under the nose of the board, then you die.

There is a special technique to getting over the swell which is a combination of timing and shifting your body weight. Much like driving a rally car fast is about shifting the weight through the corners, keeping a formula board on the water is about shifting your body weight to compensate for the extra lift over swells.

This is what SHOULD happen:

1. Nearing the top of the swell – sheet out a TINY bit to reduce power, shift your body weight forward.
2. Going over the swell – keep the sail slightly unsheeted, BEND YOUR KNEES (all the way to your chin if you need) in time with the wave to absorb the steepness of the swell whilst still keeping your body VERY far forward.
3. As you enter the crest after the swell – sheet in aggressively and point the board hard in to the wind to compensate for the extra power generated by lifting over the swell.

All that should happen in 2 seconds!

To explain further, each swell you go over you should be bending your knees as the wave moves underneath you to keep the board trimming flat. Much like a mogul skiier uses his knees to absorb the bumps in the snow. Don’t unsheet the sail completely, as this will fly the nose of the board. Simply unsheet 5-10cm to reduce the power in the fin as you go over the swell. Shift your entire body forward (in the harness) about 30cm to help keep the nose of the board down.

If you have no choice but to get airborne over the swell, lift your back foot to raise the back of the board and keep it flat so it is not flipping whilst in the air.

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That’s all you need to know about high-wind formula sailing. The most important part to all this is PRACTICE.

Singlehandedly, the best way I’ve improved my high-wind skills was when everytime I arrived at the beach with +25 knots and all my friends would be rigging slalom. I would rig my 10m and go for a very short blast on the formula board before switching to slalom. Gradually over time I’d get more and more used to the feeling and control in strong winds and be comfortable enough to try new settings in this wind. Then at the next race event it blew +30 knots and I was the only one who was prepared for these kind of winds. It’s that simple. Go get out there!

There are three vital aspects in technique training:

• Understanding the technique and theory behind how to do the manoeuvre
• Repetitive training of the manoeuvre and (if possible) getting feedback on the technique from an observer/coach
• Train, train and train until you can do the manoeuvre under stress in a variety of wind conditions

The fun of all this is that you can improve your sailing ability and thereby your results in competition through real training programs on technique. It still intrigues me why so many of us just go sailing and somehow hope to get better while they do not consequently work on their weaker points of sailing. Sailing combines the complications of strength, technique, tuning, tactics as well as the understanding of weather and difficult decision making processes. Why would you only train 40% of these when you could be training 100% of these aspects?

OK, I have to admit, I also make the same mistake over and over again: cruising around instead of specific training and constant testing if I’m faster than my buddy. Very rarely I take the time to train my manoeuvres and I know I lack consistency and lose a lot of time around the course because of this, so for me it is good to also write this article and get back to the real-deal; starting training with a goal in mind. I know that by doing so I will not only get better very quickly but on top of that I also will enjoy the process of training and fine-tuning my manoeuvres. Let us, this time, look at gybing:

GYBING (hands, hands again): 

Are you able to gybe your FW board whilst maintaining planing? Can you do this in 8 knots as well as in 20 knots? Can you gybe the board any time you feel like it, or do you need to wait for that perfect swell to ride down? Do you know your own weak points on the manoeuvre? Have you been training the manoeuvre or are you satisfied with the 5 gybes you do every afternoon whilst training?! What is crucial in the technique?

Firstly, a good gybe is a quick gybe. But do not get confused, because a good gybe is a very smooth manoeuvre aiming to not disturb the momentum you already have before initiating the turn. Imagine yourself doing a perfect gybe on your FW board, what is it like? How does it feel, close your eyes and feel the manoeuvre. Let me tell you how mine will go:

I have great speed going downwind while my sail is very full with minimal outhaul applied. I have already thought about where I want to execute the gybe as this will give me the right focus leading into the turn. First I will move my backhand further backwards to create a wider grip. Almost simultaneously I get my back foot out of the strap and place it on the leeward side just in the middle of the footstraps. With this I start the curve and while doing so I push the sail with my forward hand while pulling the sail with my backhand. It is the same movement how you would start a laydown gybe on your slalom equipment. As soon as the turn is ‘locked in’ I move my forward hand all the way towards the mast. My grip is now at the widest and I have a lot of control over my sail. Before I go through the wind I change my stance which is directly followed by flipping the sail.

Still, I see a lot of guys flipping far to late, they wait until the board and the sail is through the wind and then start flipping. This is far to late. The board will stall and you are far too late to rebuild the power in the sail and maintain the momentum. Because of this you will stop planing and loose all you may have gained by using the most sexy new fin your money could buy…

Get your manoeuvre right. Start early when changing your stance from one side of the board to the other and flipping the sail. If you have your forward hand close to the mast the flip will be smooth and you will be able to easy cross over with your other hand and maintain the momentum. After the cross get your hand far back on the boom while stepping backwards on the board. Lower your butt and pop the cambers through a powerfull pull on the sail. You may feel stupid lowering your butt so much but it is the only way to fully be in control of the things going on. It will enable you to maintain the planing momentum and you can gain a lot of ground by this, so please feel a little stupid and overdo this lowering of the butt.

A few key pointers to remember whilst gybing:

• Always do a boom-to-boom gybe. Holding the mast at any point in time is inefficient
• The lower you can get your body after flipping the sail, the easier it is to sheet the sail in without getting pulled over the front

Ok, now the manoeuvre is almost completed. If you started changing your stance and flipping the sail on time then the board is still on a downwind course the moment you start sailing again on the new tack and you will be able to hook into the harness easily. Only if you started too late with the flipping and stance-change your board is on a halfwind course or even on an upwind course and you have no chance what so ever to maintain the planing mode, just read the most essential elements below and get in control of your gybing.

FW Gybing, Step-By-Step:

1. Plan ahead where and when to start the manoeuvre
2. If you go too fast then start by luffing a little just prior to the gybe; I call it the ‘S’ shape start of the gybe
3. Widen your boom grip by placing your backhand even further towards the back of the boom (close to your outhaul cleats even). You need to tuck the sail slightly by pulling aggressively inwards with your back hand and dropping the front of the sail away from you
4. At the same time, get out of the back strap and place your backfoot on the leeward rail, engaging the pressure
5. Lean forward and across your board. This helps with tucking the sail and keeping the rail pressure on the board which allows you to cut through any chop (without tucking the sail, you can’t as easily generate the rail pressure necessary to commit the gybe and you will struggle gybing in choppy conditions)
6. Once you are 60% through your turn (60% if you are already heading downwind when beginning the gybe), driving from your back leg (still on the leeward rail), pull the sail upright as well as forward, using both arms. Its an action like throwing a shot-put and you must aggressively force your hips with your back arm and actually PUSH the sail away from you – this is initiating the sail flip
7. Don’t just “flip” the sail. Push it away with your backhand. With your front hand, aggressively pull the sail towards you from a grip that is closest to the mast as possible. This pulling will help the sail flip quicker as well as using the momentum created by your hip-drive to keep the board moving
8. As you flip the sail, your back leg moves to the front position on the new tack. In windy conditions you can do a strap-to-strap gybe if necessary (ie, your back leg goes straight into the front strap to help you with control when sheeting in)
9. As the sail is flipping, you are still pulling with your current front hand and then taking a grip in the same position (close to the mast) on the new side of the sail with your old back hand. Your hands will cross over to do this
10. The board should still be on a downwind course when you have sheeted in on the new side – this will help keep the board planing
11. Take a wide grip on the boom (back hand close to the outhaul cleat) and lower your butt significantly, to be able to sheet in with another pump of the sail to pop the cams
12. Hook into the harness before you put your foot in the back strap

The Planing FW Gybing in 8 knots:

Yes it is possible. Having a bit of swell to roll down helps. The technique is very similar to the above however there’s a few key steps you need to do PRECISELY otherwise you will stall and some mug from 4th place will beat you to the finish line on that last downwind leg.

• The sail flip has to be initiated 60% into the turn. Later and you will stall. Earlier and you will crash. 40% works best if you are already sailing on a downwind leg, so therefore you only need to turn just over 90 degrees to complete the gybe (not almost 180 degrees like a slalom gybe). So in actual fact, 60% has already brought you through the eye of the wind.
• When making the sail flip, focus a lot on the sail upward-thrust of both the rig and your body. With a wide grip on the boom, use your hips to the extent you are even twisting your body with your hips (the same direction the sail is flipping) as you move. As you twist, push very hard with your back hand to “throw” the sail away from you as you pull hard with your front hand to pull the sail back towards you. This allows the sail to flip quickly.
• In light winds you can switch your feet to the new side of the board a lot earlier. Move your back leg to the new windward side of the board in front of the front strap (never IN the front strap). Move your front leg to the new side just in front of the back strap (never IN the back strap).
• On the new side of the board and with the sail still in the process of flipping you can begin to pump the board with your legs. Drop your body weight very low (bend those knees!) and with both legs simultaneously drive upwards, with the motion of pushing the board “forward” with your legs. This is difficult to explain on paper, but easily replicated on the board. You are pumping the board with your legs and not pumping the sail.
• Pumping the board with your legs a few times as you are sheeting in on the new side is the key to keeping the board’s momentum. Sheeting in on the new side with the board pointing very far downwind also helps as you can spin the board the last few degrees as you sheet in.
• Pumping until you are powered enough to hook in is also mandatory. If you have timed your gybe nicely to finish coming down a swell you can use the pumping of the board with your legs to keep the board moving down that swell and ease into pumping the sail more efficiently.
• Practice and practice is the key to this gybe. It takes a while to master.

Working on the gybing techniques it is important to visualise yourself executing this manoeuvre in your mind, imagining how the manoeuvre might feel like and if possible looking at videos where the manoeuvre is executed perfectly. Then start practising the technique on the water. Having someone watching you doing the manoeuvre helps you pin-point any mistakes. An easy way to do this is to train in pairs with each of you watching each other gybe from behind. Even better, have someone videotape the sessions so you can see yourself and evaluate what you are doing for better or worse. If you can perform it again and again at a good level then it is time to train the manoeuvre under stress…

Think of any form of competition in which the manoeuvre is key. In the previous article I gave one possible training option which you can also do downwind. Go with your friend (or in a group) and have the leader of the pack shout ‘GYBE’ or any other signal at which everyone has to execute the gybe right away. The idea of the training is to get downwind as fast as possible. A slowly executed gybe will get you behind others but also a fast gybe in which you change the stance too late and flip the sail too late, finishing pointing upwind too far, will lose you valuable ground to those who execute better and/or are better able to maintain downwind momentum. Keep training until you come out on top, do not rest until you have a solid belief in yourself that you can and will perform a great gybe any time you have to. Being able to execute a great gybe even when you are tired will help you in Race 4 for the day.

Other possible training options are up and downwind battles in which you as a group decide on doing at least 6 tacks and gybes on the up and downwind and then have competition who is best. Train under stress. Do not go sailing without focus. Get out there with the mentality to always perform your best, as there is no substitute for TOW (time-on-water). Do not miss any opportunity to grow, unless you are one of the lucky guys that live in Hawaii or similar exceptional places on the Earth: then you have all the opportunity’s one can dream of.

Remember that learning plateau’s seem to always occur, even at the higher levels. Only those who really examine the reasons behind them will find the learning curve going up again. There is no easy way but what the heck, there is no better place to be then on the water doing what we all love so much, go (formula) sailing and having the best time of your life. Please buy yourself free time to train rather then spending all money on the newest gear constantly (then I will do just that and hope it will outperform all your training!)

Jan Witteveen.

Jan Witteveen has been racing formula since it began and has been a Dutch Champion in windsurfing way back in the Div II days before some of us were even old enough to hold an uphaul. He’s now heavily involved with organising the popular Regio Cup racing events in the Netherlands and an avid FW racer…

Let’s take a step back from your sailing and see what is happening on the learning plateau. All the big, early improvements have already happened for you. You are not making the really big tactical mistakes on the course anymore; your equipment trim is basically ok, as is your ability to sail around the course without dropping the sail. Now it is time to see what is holding you back and why you are on this plateau. There may be a number of reasons but from what I have seen in the past 20 years of competing it is mainly in the way we all going about our training. Most go straight to the water and begin sailing. Maybe tweak to some extent your downhaul and change a fin, but realistically, at the end of the day a couple of up and downwind sessions is all you have accomplished as has been the way with most previous training sessions. You need to step out of this groove and start thinking about what you need to improve on and get your training on to a new path…

In this article we will look at a common reason for being stuck on the learning plateau: when your technical skills are holding back further improvements.

Are you able to tack and initiate planing upwind quickly and effectively out of each tack? So that you can get out of dirty air and not find yourself in the hopeless position? Are you able to gybe your board and keep it on the plane even in marginal conditions? If not, stop and think briefly about some moments out on the racecourse where the leaders of the fleet are going through their manouvres. Whats the difference between the top guys and yourself? A really good manouvre can get you at least 10-20 meters closer/faster to the finish then a normal executed manouvre. Just imagine that your manouvres are not even on par with normal ?? Typically you may tack 4 times in a race. If you are 5 seconds slower than someone else in your tacks then you’ve already lost 20 seconds. A formula board travels at 8m/sec in medium winds. That means you’ve just lost 160m around the racecourse. Is that how much they are beating you by? Thought so…

The big question now is how to improve then?

• First look at your technique (tacking and gybing)
• Then work on this technique in your training sessions so you become used to how it is done correctly and fluently
• Then start training the technique under pressure against other sailors

Mastering Technique (hands are your friends):

A major mistake I often see in tacking and gybing is the way the boom is handled. The handwork is the most important aspect in both the tack and gybe manoeuvre. Most sailors perform their footwork very well but their handwork is so bad that they lose a lot of efficiency in these manoeuvres.

First lets focus on tacking [Fig 1]. The first thing to work on is bringing your backhand a little further to the back of the boom so you can sheet in very aggressively when initiating the tack [Fig 2]. Tacking should be AGGRESSIVE. With your hands further down the boom you can oversheet more easily and quickly force the board direction into the wind. With your feet you are first coming out of the back strap to help the board pointing into the wind and getting ready to move to the other side of the sail. As soon as the board is far enough into the wind (that the sails feels very light in your hands) and you are getting ready to jump to the other side of the sail, move your front hand to the very front of the boom [Fig 3] near the mast (on the SAME side as you are currently sailing on). This step seems to be missed often by sailors who don’t tack very well.

You should have a very wide grip at this moment, giving you a lot of control. Your front hand is right at the front of the boom and your back hand a long way back somewhere behind your harness lines. When you make the jump to the other side of the sail with your body, let go of your backhand first and cross over to the other side of the boom with your back hand. In the process of doing this, with large sails you can actually use your front hand to begin pulling the sail towards you and more upright [Fig 4] (notice I am pulling hard with my right hand in Fig 4).

As you jump around the sail, with your back hand, grab the boom at the front on the new side of the sail [Fig 5]. At this point the sail will most likely still be raked back from pointing so hard to windward to go into the tack. Use your new front hand to aggressively pull the sail back to the upright position and begin to reach back to a wide position with your backhand on the new side of the boom [Fig 5]. Now on the other side of your sail your new forward foot is as close to the mast as possible and your back foot is in front of the back straps but more towards the rail of the board than the centre. Try to grab the boom as far back as possible to get a powerful grip and lower your centre of effort by bending your knees a little [Fig 6]. Start pushing the board downwind wind to get ready to pump and into the new wind.

Push the board aggressively. Punish it. Hard. HARDER. Use your back foot to pull towards you and your front foot to push off downwind, forcing the board quickly into a beamreach position which will allow you to start pumping and get up to speed. As you start to pump you can manoeuvre your feet into the footstraps (wind strength will define how quickly you get into the straps – the windier it is, the quicker you want to be safe inside them).  

Job done. Now you are cruising back upwind on the next tack. Relax and think what you’ve just done over before trying the exercise again.

The best way to train tacking/gybing is simply to drill it into yourself. Repeat this tacking sequence over and over in your head, visualising all the steps while you imagine and feel that you are perfroming it live. Do it on the water as well as in your chair in front of the TV. Practice the technique constantly. It is likely that you may first be worse on the tacks before you start to improve significantly. After practice the “training phase” must start. At best this can be done in pairs or a with a group:

Training Phase: 

In your group (or pair) of sailing partners, one of the group is the leader. The leader decides when to tack by shouting “TACK” or any other signal for that matter. You all agree on this signal to tack immediately. You all need to get as quickly upwind as possible by performing quick and effective tack techniques. Be sure to make really short upwind legs before tacking again. The goal for everyone who takes part is to get as far upwind as possible and to tack faster than the boats around you. After twenty or so tacks you can stop and see who has won this leg. Really push yourself to perform the best tacks you can. By pushing hard you train in the same frame of mind (and exhaustion state) as if you are in a real race. Then sail downwind and start the sequence again with another leader. If you are lucky enough to not sail alone this is great for improving your tacks/gybing and in itself is also great for your windsurf endurance and strength.

• Extra Tip: If possible, it would be very beneficial to get your tacking/gybing technique on film so that you can examine and critique your technique afterwards.

This is really what learning and improving is about. Just give it a try. It may help you find those extra seconds around the course and find a new way to improve your racing – climbing off that learning plateau that has been punishing you and your motivation this season.

Next article I will talk about gybing to complete this series about handling the boom. Have some great TOW.

Jan Witteveen.

Frank Bethwaite was at the forefront of development of the 18ft Skiffs from the 1970’s through to the 1990’s. He suggested that the performance of boats that sail with the apparent wind forward of the beam at all times (as does a FW board) is governed by the ratio of the sail carrying power versus the total weight.

(See the above picture and read the full chapter, “The Quest for Speed”; pg 164 -High Performance Sailing)

This chapter was written about 18ft Skiffs. A modern FW’er emulates the performance of an 18ft Skiff. A good comparison was the Ronstan Bridge-to-Bridge race in San Francisco. Micah Buzianis (USA-34) and Kevin Pritchard (USA-3) competed against many top 18ft Skiff boats from Australia (including the World Champion from England) as well as the best of the best in kitesurfing. Micah narrowly beat the 18ft Skiff in this race highlighting their similarity in boatspeed:

• http://www.kiter.com/events/bridge2bridge.asp
• http://www.formulawindsurfing.org/news.php?id=587

The “sail carrying power/total weight” ratio for a sailor like Antoine Albeau on FW gear is in the vicinity of 55% compared with 61% that Bethwaite identifies for a modern 18ft Skiff. The total equipment weight of FW gear is around 26kg (unless you have the new Exocet board!). With the hydrodynamic lift that a FW board generates when planing, the “sail carrying power” is perhaps a better determining factor in going fast, rather than Bethwaite’s sail carrying power/total weight ratio.

SAIL CARRYING POWER =
Righting Moment / Distance between the centre of effort of the sail and the combined lateral resistance of the hull and fin.

Antoine, at 100kg has a sail carrying power which is 20% more than someone like Steve Allen at 82kg. With the development of the FW class, raceboards have become wider (up to 100.5cm now) and in the last two seasons, even wider in the tail. This allows for more sail carrying power which has been helped by the stability and handling of the newer wide-luff race sails.

All that being said, there’s more to winning a race than simply eating a few too many meat-pies before you go sailing, which is proved by a guy like Steve Allen coming 2nd overall at a relatively light weight of 82kg. So let’s focus less on what you can do physiologically and look at some things you can “actually” do to help you go faster around the course at whatever weight you are…

Have a look at this photo from the racing in Silvaplana, 2007. The lead boat is Alberto Menegatti (ITA-456), behind him Markus Bouman (NED-6) and 3rd in the line is myself (AUS-120). Notice our distinctly different techniques. With Alberto on the uphaul rope he can get his body much further hiked and still have the sail quite upright. Markus gets out a little further than me but isn’t sheeted in too well in this picture. I believe I am too upright in the photo and have since worked on my technique to improve my stance.

Now have a look at this photo gallery here; a few photos of some of the top guys in FW going to windward. Notice everyone’s technique is slightly different but most of them have the sail very upright and are very hiked out, getting their body as far from the sail as possible. My favourite is the photo of Kevin Pritchard (USA-3) from the 2002 FW Worlds in Germany. His sail could be a little more upright but check out how far hiked he is! No wonder he won two Worlds in a row!

It is hard to get the sail upright and keep sheeted in at the same time. The two things seem to contradict each other when you try it. Work on getting your body hiked and away from the sail first, as it’s the easiest to correct. When you do, you will most likely be sailing with the rig too far on top of yourself. Once you start to drag the sail on top of you, the lift forces you are generating from the fin begin to decrease, so the second part of your training should be to work on ways of getting the sail more upright whilst still keeping your body hiked out. Here’s some tips to get you started…

Feet:

Feet are VERY important in railing the board and positioning your body for a good stance. Make sure you are on the balls of your feet. In lighter winds you can use your front foot to pull up on the front strap and help rail the board – in the extremes you can even do this with your back foot. Keep light on the board as heavy pressure will only dig the winward rail in (that’s slow!). Keep light on your feet; think like a ballerina.

Legs:

The best technique involves having a straighter front leg than your back leg. It shouldn’t be dead straight, but just a slight bend to allow you to absorb chop with your legs (by bending them slightly over the swells) and be comfortable when you sail. The concept should be to apply more weight to your back leg and lifting your front foot to rail the board, which allows you to power the fin and still rail the board. Practice will help with this…

Arms:

There’s no right or wrong here but I personally believe you can get further away from the rig with a pronated grip (both hands over the boom, as opposed to having your front hand under the boom). Everyone has a personal preference and once you have a good technique down-pat, you can do it with either grip – but to help learn this technique quickly I would suggest trying the pronated grip. A pronated grip allows you to roll your shoulders forward and effectively lengthen your arms a few cm.

Body:

Try to avoid twisting your body to windward. The best sailors have a relatively straight stance if you look at them from directly upwind. Have a look at the photo in the gallery of Wojtek Brzozowski (POL-10), he stands very straight on the board which means he can keep the sail very upright and still hike out. Twisting your shoulder forward as some people do when they are overpowered can lead to dragging the sail on top of you more.

Breathing:

Believe it or not, breathing is important with this technique. When you breathe deeper, you open your diaphragm up and can relax your shoulders more to get them rolling forward to lengthen your armspan. Probably, it’s hard to remember your breathing in 25 knots, but give it a thought on that 10 knot day when you next go sailing.

Equipment:

Equipment plays a big role in helping you hike. Your boom height, harness lines, mast-track position and fin will change the way the sail feels in your hands and the pressures it allows you to apply to the fin. This is all personal preference. Try it all. Get a friend with a camera to take some photos of you sailing and see what setup helps you to get more hiked.

Uphaul Rope:

The jury is still out on this one. Many top sailors use it in light winds, many go the same speed without it. My personal opinion is that the theory behind it is good, because the guys using the uphaul are hiked out incredibly far whilst still having the sail upright. There are plenty of guys who can get their bodies out that far without the uphaul rope, so whatever works for you – works for you.

Take some time next time you race to have a look at the stance of the guy’s winning the races. If the fleet is at a decent level, then chances are the guys winning will have a great stance keeping the rig upright and hiking out far from their board to generate maximum lift. That is why they beat you around the course without forking out so much money for a new fin like you did. Now, imagine you’ve worked on your stance AS WELL as buying that new fin …

It has long been said that the best setup for sailing formula (FW) kit at its top speed potential is to have:

• tiny sail
• tiny fin
• dead flat water
• lots of wind
• balls of steel!

Here is the original post on the Starboard Forum where some people have suggested this setup (and where all the hype began) and another from the Seabreeze Forum in Australia:

• http://www.star-board.com/forum/showthread.php
• http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp

This article is to show you that a lot of that information is incorrect and can actually prevent you from reaching your top speed on your FW kit. To understand how to go fast downwind we must look at the basics first…

Angles and Blades of Glory:

The fastest angle appears to be around 120 degrees. FW boards can obviously run much deeper angles than that (up to 150 degrees) but you generally travel slower when heading very deep. When you do head deeper than 120 degrees, your apparent wind decreases appreciably (almost below your board speed) which counteracts the ability to travel faster – as your board cannot go faster than your apparent wind.

FW boards are wide and have a lot of wetted surface area. The main aim in improving your downwind speed is reducing your wetted surface area. This is usually done by railing the board with your feet (and stance on the board), but selecting the correct fin can make railing even easier downwind. To go fast at 120 degrees, you require a decent sized FW fin of no less than 66cm. Shorter fins (especially now that the tail width on most modern formula boards is +82cm) will make the board unstable and most likely give you spin-out problems.

Use a Bigger Sail:

To go faster downwind, you usually would take a bigger sail out on the racecourse. Most people understand this as the increase in power with a larger sail is the sole cause of the increase in downwind speed. A larger sail (and more power) helps considerably to rail the board downwind which also results in downwind speed increase. The faster you go, the more drag you have and power you need, so to help reduce the drag – use a sail that helps you rail the board downwind and reduce the board’s drag.

Generally speaking, FW speed records will be most likely set in +25 knot winds so most sailors will be already down on their smaller rigs. It is my opinion that 9m sails will be difficult to achieve speeds over 30 knots with and those who have achieved this feat would have been faster on 10m sails. A 10m/11m sail will generate the required power to help rail the board, provided the fin is compatible and also working with the overall tuning of the equipment.

So in actual fact, the conditions needed for a super fast FW speed should be:

• powerful sail (10m/11m recommended)
• small fin (+66cm at least, but powerful enough to help rail the board)
• lot’s of wind (+25 knots mandatory)
• relatively flat water with small, close together chop (we’ll get to this in a minute)
• balls of steel!

Flying The Fin:

This is by far the fastest way to travel downwind. By “flying the fin” you are railing the board so excessively that at times there is only a small portion of the leeward rail in the water. Have a look at this fantastic photo of Danish sailor Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) taken by John Carter in England. Jesper is using an 11.8m sail and 70cm fin in 15-18 knots of wind in this photo and he is able to comfortably rail the board to reduce the drag it produces through the water.

This is achieved mostly by pointing your toes and using your front foot to pull up on the strap to iniate the railing. A tighter back strap will help with this also, however most FW sailors run a slightly looser back footstrap to allow their foot to step in closer to the middle of the board and not so far out onto the rail. It is important to have a stance on the board that keeps the sail upright and allows the sail to breath so as to keep control of the board as it goes through the chop on the rail.

Chop, Not Flat:

Believe it or not, small chop helps your FW speed by increases the board’s ability to rail downwind. On a speed strip, with ultra flat water it is more difficult to rail the board and keep it railed. Dennis Littel commented after his famous day that his fastest runs were in the small 20-40cm chop away from the smooth bank he had been running along. The board would be easier railed, which allowed the sailor to concentrate on his stance and sheeting, to keep the board trimmed and fluent through the water.

The closer the chop is together, the more this will help. In strong winds this may be a dangerous combination for some – but you have already signed your life away by wanting to get a FW board over 30 knots !!

Some More Stats:

Here is a link to Dennis Littel’s famous record breaking run and also my run on the same day at the same location. My setup was: Starboard F161, Gaastra Vapor 10m, R13 66cm M. Dennis used F2 FX-V, MauiSails TR-3 11m, R13 68cm.

• http://www.aus120.com/gps/ (AUS-120, unedited track)
• http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com (NED-13, record details)

Unfortunately, I did not sail enough runs that day to get my average up over 30 knots, although my top speed was over 32 knots. Both of us were running our “racing” setup and did not modify the trim in any way for the speed runs. In fact, that gear was capable of doing <49 degree angles upwind at 15 knots boardspeed with VMG’s of over 10 knots.

The fastest sailors downwind on the race course can usually translate that ability to being fast on the speed course. It is a combination of equipment, technique and conditions however I believe the first two play a far more important role on an FW board than on a speed needle.

Hopefully this article spurs more people on to brave the craziness that is high-speed FW sailing!

Sure, there’s probably a lot of different ways to downhaul your sail, but I thought I’d just show you my technique. The key is that it’s quick, easy, simple and most importantly, VERY friendly on your back.

The photos will give you a better idea. To apply the final downhaul settings to your sail (this is where the really high tensions begin) simply:

• Loop the downhaul rope through your harness
• Feed the rope around itself twice (no more no less)
• Wrap the remaining rope around your hand to act as a cleat
• With your right foot, push against the mast foot and hold the downhaul rope tightly

Using your legs to apply the pressure and supporting the load with your back through the harness you can apply a considerable amount of force without damaging your back or wasting valuable sailing energy.

• Pull a cm of downhaul and then pull your left hand (with rope wrapped around) away from your body to shorten the downhaul rope

With only two wraps of the rope around itself you can pull the rope shorter quickly and easily without having to muck around with knots or the like.

This downhaul technique works better with superior ropes, such as the Marlow “Formuline” (which is identical to the rope now supplied with 2008 NeilPryde Extensions). As this rope is thinner (3.5mm??) and very slippery compared to other ropes you can pull the downhaul on very easily. Too many times I have seen people struggle with downhauling their race sails simply because they wouldn’t spend the extra few $$$ to get a decent rope. Your sail is probably worth over 1000 euros, why not spend an extra 4 euros and buy some really nice rope?!

There are other techniques available but I thought I would share this one with you because I think it’s the simplest and quickest way to downhaul your sail that also allows you to “feel” how much downhaul you are putting into your sail. Ask any pro-windsurfer, they downhaul their sails by “feel”. No idea what that feel is? Maybe you are using a crank. Downhauling with this method – which is effectively by ‘hand’ – will allow you to feel how much tension you are putting on and over time and with practice you will start to feel the zone when the correct amount of downhaul is applied. But make sure you go and test it on the water afterwards just in case!