Hi! Last week I gave my sail to a girl and she said she the position of harness lines was extremely uncomfortable for her and she wasn't able to control the sail since it pulled her forward (like in catapult). So she moved the harness lines to the mast. After she returned the sail, I experienced the same uncomfortable feeling but in the opposite way, the harness lines were way to close to the mast and I couldn't sheet in the sail. So I moved the lines to the clew. Can anybody explain why we set different positions for harness lines? In addition I can say that I'm much larger than she is (187/86 vs 159/50), her speed is lower (app. 10 km/h) and we used slalom rig.

feet in straps, hooked in and hammered down... hit ramp, air, land where I fall, crash... slingshot around the front in a pile of mess and expletives.

How do you stop the catapult after bunny hopping?

Just had a session where I feel I've moved off the plateau when it comes to my gybes. OK, it'll probably all go backwards again next session, but if this helps someone else, then great.

So I don't think I'm too shabby at my gybes already (insert not very modest smiley); I drop very few but if I was being truly honest, I probably plane out of less than 50% of them (I mean properly plane). The unsatisfying ones are the ones where once you flip the rig you've lost that 'speed with no power in the sail' type planing that is so enjoyable as you carve through and exit the turn. Most of the time it is the south coast lumps in the water that knock me out of shape.

So today when I launched everything just felt right. Powered up, but not overpowered, the sea was bumpy and jumpy but not confusing or difficult. So I was flying in both speed and jumps . With nobody around, I was enjoying the feeling of everything going right and probably sailing more flamboyantly than I would normally - and it translated into all my gybes being full on planing ones. The ones where you accellerate out and can gently easy the power back on with no disruption to your sailing line. I tried to figure out what it was and I think I did. It was my knees. I know you're supposed to bend your knees in a gybe and I always do to a certain extent, but today I was bending them well beyond what I have ever done before - particularly on my front leg. It changed the whole feel of every gybe, so that every turn felt buttery like when on a decent wave. I always thought I bent my knees a lot anyway, but I suspect like my skiing and snowboarding, a video camera would quickly demonstrate that what you think is a lot, isn't anything like enough.

So there we have it. I managed somewhere between 40-50 gybes today and every single one was full on planing and I reckon it was all down to that one thing - as well as the fact that I was sailing like a superhero :rock:. So bend ze kneez.

Thinking of things to learn on good days is easy. When you can easily get a few feet of air and there are reasonable waves to wiggle on then you are only limited by your bravery and imagination.
However, with summer approaching there are going to be plenty of planing days on the south coast where the lack of waves is going to limit your options.


In the last couple of years I've rarely bothered to sail when there are no waves. I don't have a lot of time for windsurfing, but my time is flexible, so I normally choose the good wave days at the expense of the non-wave days.

This summer should be different however. I will have a lot more free time, and that time is still flexible. Non-wave days are therefore back on the agenda:).

I'm therefore looking for stuff I can learn when there are no waves. A few years ago (before I discovered Hove and summers were flat;)) I learnt to forward over the summer and it was an amazing motivator. If there was any chance of a bit of planing breeze I would be frothing to get to the beach.

I'm after something similar this year. It needs to be suited to learning in the disorganized chop I tend to sail in, and be achievable in about 20 sessions by a mere mortal! Port tack forwards are definitely on the list, but what else? Ideally it would be something that would benefit my wavesailing in some way. Anyone got any good ideas?

B