I have been windsurfing a couple of sessions (2hours each session in 2-4Bft, #6 sessions max) previous season and bought a 2nd hand Rio S (~196l) - width 79cm. After that I tried (silly me) to get with my board and 4.5m? sail at the beach (starting this season, couple of weeks back) through the shorebreak with 3Bft (max 4Bft), I succeeded a couple of times, but in the end it was a complete failure and enourmously bad for my moral. After that I tried to go back to a lake-isch environment and it was like "a walk in the park" compared to the sea 
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Now, I am approx 75kg. Today I tried sailing in 17-27knots with my "little" board and 4.5m? sail and couldn't really hold the power in trapeze/hands, the chop was quite heavy on the board and it wanted to go upwind (mast foot far forward). So I practised waterstarting (from little lower than shoulder height) and I think I accomplished them at the end of the 2hour session 60% of the time.
My question to you intermediate/hard/knowledgeable windsurfers is the following:
- I can beachstart, trapeze, uphaul, go upwind, non-carve gybe in low wind and in the right conditions use footstraps. Nothing perfect, but OK-isch?
Is it time to go to a less voloumous board? (I have a Tabou Rocket 125lts in the garage from 2012 - width 69cm)?
When should I take out the Rio S (how many knots)?
Am I doing bad with the 4.5m? sail? (it is a Tiki sail, no X-ply I think - beginner sail with normal cloth-isch fabric? & feels unstable - proably because of my rigging/trimming)?
Shouldn't I be able to sail bigger sails for my weight?
It's a mace when to use which board and sail in 10 knots, 15 knots, 20 knots, 25 knots at this point hahahahaha
Kind regards!
I appreciate any comment on this topic!
You are probably going get a number of replies, all with good advice. Remember that most of us start with one board and then it grows from there. Before you know it, you have a trailer filled with boards, sails and accessories for every condition. If you have the money and the will it is a lot of fun. As for the timing of your progression, there are different paths you can take. Incrementally, you could buy a slightly smaller board and get used to it before working your way onto another smaller board. The timing is based upon your total confidence with each board. An alternative would be to drastically reduce the size of your board, perhaps down to 100-120 litres and learn how to adapt to a very different platform. There are advantages to a smaller board, especially when it comes to water starting, the way your board reacts to choppy conditions and the ease with which it will carve through a gybe.
Those are two options but the third is that you continue with the rig you already have. I imagine that there are some places in the world where they ride whatever they can get their hands on, whatever the size. Regardless of the technical issues, they have lots of fun, sail fast and can do amazing freestyle tricks on equipment that was not really designed for that purpose.
Bigger sails are not always faster, technique has a big part to plat rather than size. Some sail and board combinations will be your happy place - exploit that. Failure is not bad, you are just finding out what fits you best. You will be continually improving, use your own common sense to determine where the lines of risk verses reward are.
You want to switch to a smaller board when your bigger board becomes hard to control despite using a smaller fin.
I smell a rat with use of trapeze, same kinda board size and sailor weight as the question from someone a week ago.... and mixing up beaufort scale and knots in one post...
Bot.
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
I smell a rat with use of trapeze, same kinda board size and sailor weight as the question from someone a week ago.... and mixing up beaufort scale and knots in one post...
Bot.
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
I smell a rat
Bot.
Interesting. Anything is possible these days. But what does a bot smell like?
OP Tom - have you done just 4hrs sailing time?
I think I have just done about 400 hours and am just learning to turn my big gear around - ie carve gybe.
'Know know, know your boat'
Take some time and figure out the kit.
I learnt on a 5.2, then after two weeks went to a 7.0 then after 2 months bought gear 7.8-8.5 m (used 7.8 until i could plane around in both foot straps) all of this on a techno 293 board.
then after about a year of windsurfing went onto a 91cm foil board and 9.0 sail
(im 16 and 91kg)
i did windsurfing only in a club environment though.
Select to expand quoteRoyalontheFoil said..
I learnt on a 5.2, then after two weeks went to a 7.0 then after 2 months bought gear 7.8-8.5 m (used 7.8 until i could plane around in both foot straps) all of this on a techno 293 board.
then after about a year of windsurfing went onto a 91cm foil board and 9.0 sail
(im 16 and 91kg)
i did windsurfing only in a club environment though.
bloddy hell im 17 and 68 kg wish i could get to that weight to help the foiling lol.
