I don't think you should change your straps. Like you said, you've been sailing for years and never had an injury. It was an accident, they happen. If you had an accident in your car would you suddenly change your driving position? Probably not.
Also, I suffered an acl rupture and was off the water for 6 months. 6 weeks will be easy, just don't rush your return and make sure you do plenty of strengthening exercises when you're allowed because you would no doubt have suffered atrophy in the short time you're not properly using your knee and quads etc.
Good luck and I hope you have a speedy recovery.

G'day Simon,

I suffered a grade II MCL on my right knee earlier this year learning to (ssshhh.... it's our little secret- okay!!) kite surf. Fortunately mine was in April so I had winter to recover...

Minimum six to eight weeks. Keep the leg in the brace and get some physio on it weekly. Ensure to massage the area in order to remove the scar tissue as soon as possible. Once it starts to heal, make sure you start some leg extensions etc etc (under the guidance of your physio) in order to build the muscle back up around the knee joint in order to strengthen it (whilst the ligament repairs).

The knee gets a bit sore now and again (especially in high winds where it's flexing in the lateral sense) when I'm sailing and I now waterstart with my right leg (ex-injured one) on the board. Yep - this means that my waterstart technique changes depending on what tack I'm on. Again, the lateral movement whilst kicking with it in the water simply causes some pain.

My footstraps vary on my three boards from big to small openings. I'll get around to fixing them one day :-) I'm not overly cautious about what I do when it comes to sailing other than the waterstart.

Life is not over, just look after it for now and be patient.

Tony

I did a grade 2 mcl they said 6 to 8 weeks ,it took longer make sure you to your physo and dont rush it all you will go backwards,it took about 6 months for me to have confidence with mine,goodluck

Hey thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely take things easy. Am seeing physio . Still in brace at the moment. hopefully getting on right track still very early days.

I feel for you Simon,

I gave myself tennis elbow in early July doing renovating work and it is still not good enough to sail. I went out in August in a strong breeze thinking it'd be fine and instantly made it worse. Physio, a brace and exercise are helping. I reckon it'll still be weeks before I can get out and even then, maybe only in a light breeze.

Injuries like these are very frustrating. I've had to focus on finishing a major house reno anyway (which is most probably slowing revovery) so I guess the timing could have been worse.

Here's to a rapid recovery for you.

Cheers,
James

Quite a similar story, windsurfing since teenage years, never injured myself etc. Grade II on the right and a tweak on the left when my right (front foot) slipped off the deck with a gust. Initially the physio thought I had torn my ACL as well as straining my MCL but I've got quite loose knees. Light cycling was recommended straight away to break up any scar tissue but it seemed to make it worse. 4 months down the track a solid 3 weeks of riding to work and it's gone from 80% to almost 100% and I went out for a sail last weekend with no pain whatsoever.

I've always subscribed to the toes just poking out the other side of the strap theory. It's a bit more effort to stop the board from railing up but a small price to pay.

As above. I herniated a couple of discs in my neck and buggered my shoulder for months. Stick to the physio program and don't stop. You will know when you are ready, I had no confidence in my shoulder for nearly 9 Months but one day woke up and knew I was ready. As for the straps. I wouldn't change, things happened, that's the game we are in good luck.

Hi Simon, Just adding my experience.

Two years ago, I was skateboarding when I tore my MCL(yes, I am too old for that!) I didn't have allot of lingering pain just that sickening feeling of instability. After initial diagnosis, I chose not to see a physio & did allot of research on my own on what to do & what to avoid. Probably a very risky choice, but it worked out fine in my case. I wore a brace & was very careful for about 2 weeks, then went right back to the Gym. Now I do Crossfit so it is normally fairly intensive workouts about 3-4 time/week. I started out taking it easy - I was able to bike & row with a brace fairly quickly then after about 3 weeks I was able to put heavier weight on it & began to do Back/front Squats, & deadlifts - but avoiding any quick explosive movements such as clean, jerk, box jumps(or any kind of Jumping) & running was definitely out. I continued with this for 6-8 weeks steadily increasing weight & intensity but still avoiding quick jerky movements also did fair amount of careful stretching after workout to keep things mobile. At about 10 weeks I still felt some minor instability but added a few more movements into the workout & some very light short jogging. I didn't sail until I felt 90% stability which was probably about 3 months in. It was a bit sketch at first but i was careful & continued heavily with the strength training & mobility. Now at 2years I don't think I can tell which knee it was if I didn't already know, i think I felt 100% in about 10 months.

Hope you heal up quick - in my experience strengthening the area with careful exercise & avoid any quick twisting jerking is key to full recovery. I'm sure Physio will pay off with better advice for even quicker recovery.