Top Tips - Be careful where you put your kit

I can't tell you the number of times that I have instructed students to be careful when leaving kit on the beach, whether they have just rigged and are getting ready to launch or are just landing from a sailing session.

The reasons are that a sail will move around and might flip over with some considerable force. Even with the board attached this can be quite dangerous to others on the beach, particularly innocent bystanders who do not understand what can happen with the kit.

The best way to leave your equipment is with the sail pointing downwind, with the tip of the sail furthest downwind. The board should be part closest to the wind, attached by the UJ, across the wind and inverted. The board will then help to stop the wind blowing under the sail, and provide an anchor. The sail should not move too much as it is already pointing downwind.

Imagine my annoyance when I was just putting my kit down the other day and was too close to the board just downwind, the sail flipped in my hand and landed on the fin of the board next to me. Result a hole straight through the sail. D'oh!

Top Tips - Fine tune your kit, experiment!

So many people ask how to find the optimal setup for the equipment.

The answer is to try with all of the different variations until you find the one that feels best with your kit setup. For example set up your sail as you would normally, then sail it for ten to fifteen minutes. Come in and add an extra inch of downhaul, sail for a bit longer then add or subtract some more downhaul. This is the only way to really appreciate the feeling that you like best with your kit. Once you have the sail feeling good with the downhaul, experiment with the outhaul, repeat with the position of harness lines, height of boom, mast foot position, fin, everything.

It will take a while to get everything feeling great, but it'll be time well spent and you may be amazed how different your equipment feel.  

Top Tips - Correct Equipment

Rent, borrow, or test kit to find the best equipment for you, before you part with hard cash. 

There are so many people out there struggling with the wrong equipment. Kit that is making it difficult for them to progress because they are not at a stage where they can make the best use of it. It is amazing how quickly people can progress given equipment that complements their sailing ability and is easy enough for them to use. 

Have you seen people out there sailing boards too small? They can blast up and down, but never make a turn. A larger board with more volume could help them to crack a few maneuvers so that they spend more time sailing and less time climbing back on. 

Before purchasing any new kit see if you can take it out for a test sail and see if it really suits you. See if you enjoy it and try to test sail something similar for a good comparison.

Top Tips - More Fins!

A top tip I was given a while is to get a couple of extra fins for your board. Get different fin sizes that will allow for stronger and lighter winds. Fins are quick and easy to change, it should take less than 5 minutes.

When you start feeling the board getting overpowered or if it's not quite on the plane, it is far quicker to come in and change the fin than it is to change a sail (with all the re-rigging which will take about 1/2 and hour).

This can give you extra valuable sailing time when the conditions are changing without all the hassle of having to rig a new sail.

For my Axxis 267 I have a 32cm Fin (which came with the board). A 28cm find was purchased for those windy days when a 5.0m2 sail might be used. Finally a 23cm fin was picked up from a bargain bucket for those ballistic days. I have used this board with sails ranging from 7.0m2 all the way down to 4.0m2 when the wind was gusting force9! Without a selection if fins this would not have been possible.