Gear sounds like a good setup. Don’t try to rock the board from rail to rail, the railing should be a constant thing.

Don’t focus on the actual ‘railing’ either. Focus on trying to get constant loading on your fin. You do this by making sure your body is locked and keeping the sail sheeted in on the centre line at all times. Sheeting is really critical; letting it out a few cm (inches) here and there although doesn’t feel like much is actually taking the load off the fin. Once you are happy that you are sheeting constantly then try raising the arcs of your feet in your straps – that is the top of your feet – to push them against the strap and lift the board upwards. If you are loading the fin well enough the board should rail by itself and even more with a bit more lift created by pushing your feet up in the straps.

For your setup, I run my back straps quite loose so I can get deep in them downwind, but upwind you don’t really use the back straps so make your front strap VERY tight, as this is what controls the trim of the board. With a tight front strap you can have the setup of ‘pulling’ up with your front foot (either by the arch of your foot or even just curling your toes up a bit a literally pulling the foot up!) and then pushing hard with your back foot on the fin. This is a nice way to get the board to rail.

Also make sure your boom is at a good height. At eye-height as a minimum, and experiment with even higher. I use my boom almost above my head!

As the wind gets stronger and the fin powers up more, it’s easier and easier to rail a board. If you’re talking about SF bay chop and issues with a flying board, I’m thinking you’re talking about windy conditions?!

Could you tell me what board and what fin you are running, because when the wind is consistently over 20 knots, you don’t really need to concentrate on railing, the gear should do it automatically. When it is not railing in these winds, there may be a feature of your setup like the fin, or the track too far forward or the boom too low or something that is preventing the board from railing.

Also I ask about your board because some boards just ride ‘flat’ regardless. The Starboard 162 is an example; it has a very long flat rocker and the board doesn’t rail high compared to others so it might give the illusion that a sailor isn’t railing if you compared it to a Starboard 160 for example…

Frank from Texas

After the 147, the 158/159 got a little wider in the tail and then the 160/161/162 got even wider again. This extra width means you are standing even further away from the fin and can get more leverage against the rig. More leverage means you can hold on to a bigger fin and more often than not, hold a bigger sail in more wind (simple physics).

Over the 5 years or so of board development the boards have definitely got friendlier and you will most likely find (if you step on a newer board) that a lot of the issues you are having will sort themselves out.

There are other things to consider however; what fin are you using? Back in the 147 days people were using stiffer fins (thank KP for that one!). Today, nearly everyone is using ultra soft fins which are a lot more comfortable downwind as most of them have enough “twist” to de-power a little downwind and stop the board feeling uncomfortable.

The other factor is sails. Despite Barry Spanier raving about how fast thin luff-sleeves were I believe in the early days he missed the point that it wasn’t the extra “speed” the wide-sleeves were getting, it was the extra “stability”. Suddenly, people went from having 3 rigs to only using a 10.7m in all conditions. The extra stability in a wide luff sail (especially compared to the flatter 4KP models) will certainly help you increase your windrange and the even newer sails (this year’s and last year’s models) are again another leap in stability, ease of use; not to mention ease of RIGGING!

My first recommendation would be to investigate an update in gear (doesn’t have to be brand new, just something made in the last 3 seasons) but also your strength plays a HUGE roll in your ability to hold sails down in big winds. Doing RSX for 2 seasons I went and worked with specialised strength and conditioning coaches from our sailing association after years of dabbling in the gym on my own. I reckon I’m about 60% stronger than I was before and now I notice on the formula circuit in Australia I can plane earlier than most (pumping is stronger) and I hold down my 11m longer than most (pure strength). While you probably don’t want to be smashing the gym 4 nights a week at your age I would suggest maybe picking up some other pastime that would help with arm strength that ISN’T windsurfing … suggestions anyone??