advice re boards and spacing

[greyghost]

I have a 145 liter Carve from 2005 for light winds, a 103 liter F2 277 Ride from 2000. I was out in Earl this past weekend starting on a 6.0, then 5.0, then down to a 4.2. I know the 277 Ride is only "rated" down to a 4.5 but didn't have a smaller board.

The nose of the board would occasionally fly away in the chop and wind. I wasn't sure if this was more a factor of using too big a board or not a "modern" 103 liter short board, or technique?

ie s hould I be looking for a cheap smaller board ?87 liter for those nuking days, work on my technique, or upgrade the 103 liter board.

BTW I weight 160#

thanks
Jeff

[isobars]

100 liters and 4.2 sq meters is a mix from hell unless you're on artificially flattened water, such as just downwind of a sandbar. If you get that much wind occasionally, git thee something smaller; the 80s range, or even the upper 70s if you get solid wind and some swell to play on and have friendly shores downwind, should work fine. New vs a few years old isn't critical for occasional use, and a few years old is MUCH cheaper.

Mike \m/

[keycocker]

Man knows what he is talking about. You will be pleased that once on plane the small board is actually easier to sail no matter what you may think from past experience.
Iso has a lot more experience.

[greyghost]

[isobars]

Soooooo many factors at work here ...
• One man's "5.0" is another's 4.0 is another's 6.0.
• One venue can be smooth as an ice rink at 25 mph, while another can have breaking waves or nice swell or bumps or chop from hell.
• Boards, even of the same size, are as different as dogs or women or TV shows.
• Even fins affect ride significantly if really powered up.
• Rider skill and stance and technique make a huge difference.
• Boom/rider/harness line length/hook height geometry all interact significantly.

Moving the mast foot further forward may help, but even that depends on the board and where the mast is now. Experiment.

Generally speaking, you probably need more load on the front of the board to keep it down. That's accomplished primarily by hanging more weight in the harness and/or moving the mast further forward.

I've always scratched my head over advice regarding boom height vis a vis ride, speed, etc. My boom height is driven by my body geometry. I set my hook as high as my chosen harness allows, then set my harness line length as long as I can and still reach the boom while sheeted way in and way out, then set my booms as high as I can without having to jump into the air to hook in and out. This puts my boom as high as my geometry allows … all the way up to the bottom of my sail’s boom cutout. (I’m having my next quiver made with a lower cutout so I can get at the boom head hardware more easily when rigging.)

SEARCH chop in this forum. One such thread is at http://tinyurl.com/2dw2yry . There are more, but I haven’t time tonight to find ‘em and we have wind coming. Somewhere here I’ve posted a list of chop-smoothing techniques; I'll look again when it quits.

Mike \m/

[jingebritsen]

Typically, a smaller fin and more mast foot pressure will help with the wheelie effect of gusts lifting the nose. The defensive nature that comes intuitively is to sheet out when over powered. That slows the kit and cases the lifting nature of the sail and board to shift upward instead of forward.

One must shift the boom higher as the base goes forward, but does it have to go up as much as if one were optimally powered? No, there's a few cm's of play there thru trials and tests.

More down haul used to be the stock answer as well when everyone used standard masts. Unfortunately, skinnies allow the shape to be pulled out of a sail too easily with too much tension, so the best d/h settings are much narrower than they used to be when using RDM's. Lots of people will argue this point without tons of data to back them.

THe Ride was a good board. It does feel dated now. Tough choices to make. My Exocet CrossIII 104 has tons of upside range, as does my Exo-Wave Pro 105. I rarely step down to my 85 liter U-Surf. Even when it's blowing like snot, I prefer the upwind power of a larger board when wave sailing our typical onshore gales.

[kmf]

I think that if you are sailing in the the range of 4.2 to 5.4 sails and you weigh 160 lbs, you are using much too large of a board. In that range you should be looking at the newer 80 to 85 litre FSW boards. In the last few years, (08-11), the FSW designs have progressed greatly and are great boards for most of us.
I weigh 156 and own an 80 litre RRD FSW and find that it is the perfect board for me from around 19 or 20 with a 5.2, at 24 to 25 I use a 4.6, and much above 28 I use a 4.0, although I would prefer a smaller board at some point.
Last year I demo'd all of the big brands of FSW boards in this size and found that they are incredibly efficient and fun to sail. Fast and efficient to the point that for me they almost make a one board quiver. I have stopped using my bigger boards, (94 litre and up) unless it is very holey and inconsistant.
Look here for an exhaustive discussion about these boards. http://boards.mpora.com/tests/wave-small-freestylewave.html

KMF