Wet Willy said...

If the guys on the beach say, "you need more downhaul man

Always get that from "shore" sailors. Seems to be a macho thing to say.

ONCE AGAIN, today I came off the water exhausted after a 100% hardcore megablast session, fully powered (...) ...but I couldn't find anyone to share my enthusiasm!

"Ok lah" , "so-so" , "Wind not so good today lah", "maybe tomorrow lah"...

Always get that too, here (inland upper N.A.).

At the last freestyle event here, competitors were out in 20+ knot winds, whereas the "never good enough wind" guys were making comments on our freestyle gear. "this guy shoulda more downhaul", "this guy shoulda rigged a 5.6 rather than a 5.7",. and so on. All the whilst staying dry, forever waiting for more wind.

Wished I was that good, but I need the practice...
Wank city, but we had a ball that day !!

Too true - i see heaps of overdownhauled (and outhauled gear) on the water

In the lower 30% of your sails wind range - thats most of the time or me-Bag it to the boom (can be touching or close ) and let the sail fill out near the front (less downhaul helps with this) and you can fang in light winds for sure

Fuller profiles often tend to be more stable to - so you can sail around no handed !

Severne Overdrives and Gators do this well

i have even used S1s quite full - but they dont like it as much as they really are designed to be sailed a bit flatter - - when the sail starts getting to be a handful - thats when its time to add the tension. And you have been sailing on your own for a few hours before everyone else gets out.

More often than not a bigger sail would be more suitable for the conditions, but we dont all have 5 sails sitting rigged and waiting. And smaller sails are always more fun if you can get away with it.

Theres a simple rule of thumb for judging downhaul settings for *practical* sailing. If you are getting lifted in the gusts, you probably need more downhaul. If you are putting a lot of weight on the board, then less downhaul might be better.

With cammed sails there is minimum downhaul before battens get stressed too much and cams pop off.

Another observation I've made is the lack of batten tension lower down. Modern sails rely on batten tension to lock the profile of the sail, so if you dont have enough tension, the shape moves around and the sail is less stable and more back-hand heavy. This applies to the lower battens where there is plenty of shape in the sail.

Repeat after me: Batten Tension Is Very Important

For sub-planing setups this is not necessarily the case.