A tip for beginners trying to get in the straps

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

There's a lot of focus these days on mast foot pressure. When I taught myself to windsurf in the mid 80s, I'd never heard of MFP. Nevertheless, I had no problem figuring out what was necessary to make everything work as it was designed to. That's the key really. Everything is designed to work, as long as you do what you're supposed to. It all comes together once you're able to move back, and get into the footstraps and rake the sail back. Its been noted that getting into the harness facilitates that, and that's true to a degree, it's not the real answer. Before I bought my first harness, I was sailing around planing in the straps no problem. I found that I just couldn't do it for very long before my arms got too tired. The harness just makes things a lot easier.

In a way, thinking too much about putting downward pressure on the mast foot is counter intuitive, and it may actually inhibit and delay learning. When you think about it, moving back into the straps and raking the sail back reduces the board's waterline back to the footstrap area, or even further. If one was always trying to press down on the mast foot, they would be trying to increase waterline. Is there MFP when you're planing around? Yes, but it's built into the design of the kit. In essence, it's virtually automatic if you're in the straps planing. That's not to say that getting the most out of everything is that easy. There are still a lot of subtleties that one needs to learn to improve one's technique.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20936

I agree. When I hit a serious wind hole while riding a serious sinker, I often just drop by butt or my whole carcass into the water and wait for the wind to resume. But if I see a gust coming, I may just hang out in the straps and harness for many seconds, with almost all my weight in the harness, until the gust arrives and I can pop onto a plane. It's a serious balancing act, but it's doable and it takes some of the PITA out of mixing serious sinkers with holey conditions. Of course, the right cure if this happens often is bigger gear.

mchaco1 · Joined: 08 Sep 2010 Posts: 645

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20936

Yup, using gravity beats using muscle whenever possible ... consider herringboning up a snowy mountain compared to sliding down it.

d0uglass

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20936

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

"Increasing waterline is a plus in planing, getting the board flat and trim increases waterline and maximum hull speed and makes increases in speed require less force and makes less pull on the board to get it over onto its own bow wave."

With regard to windsurfing, I have to disagree, at least regarding boards which are designed to plane. First off, you have to have enough wind to plane. That's a necessary prerequisite. Now, I agree that there has been a design transformation in planing rockerlines over the years. Older designs, both those with the mast track more forward and those later developed around 1993 and later with a mast track placed further back, had longer planing surfaces because boards were generally longer and narrower. With the advent of very short and wide boards introduced around 2000 and later, the planing surfaces of rockerlines were shortened greatly. Still though, regardless of a board's age, the idea of planing was about reducing waterline and getting the nose and the belly of the board out of the water and onto the effective planing surfaces. That was the only way to overcome the board's bow wave. To prove my point, just check out any photograph of a good windsurfer planing. You can readily see the water being released off the bottom of the board in the footstrap area or behind. The faster you go, the water release point moves further aft.

Regarding the idea of MFP, somehow I think that folks have forgotten the fact that the sail rig itself develops a hell of a lot of MFP on its own. As I suggested earlier, it's part of the design of how things work. Admittedly, the sailor does introduce an important and necessary element in how everything works, but the idea that the sailor needs to introduce all this downward pressure is specious in my view. The idea of hanging on things and muscling everything around isn't what windsurfing is really about. As I see it, it's about balance and all the subtleties about finessing a sailing product designed to do a job.