Boom Height

Raise your booms, ladies and gentlemen.

I had some unexpected and undetected boom slippage/droppage yesterday. When I eventually noticed and raised it up again I was reminded of the virtues of high boom.

I planed earlier
I went faster
I went upwind better
The board became more loose and maneuverable
I was able to carry more speed on the wave


"Higher boom = higher fun levels", pass it on.

My booms are alway sliding down. Scratches up the mast too.

ikw777,
I glue 1.5mm thick rubber matting to the inside of my boom clamps - this eliminates any slippage and you don't have to have clamp really tight which can crush your mast. Actually I have been trying to source some tubular rubber that would go around the mast (similar to a cricket bat handle, but haven't had much luck). I really could just find a bike tyre tube that tightly fits over mast, although I'm not quite sure how difficult it would make mast to thread up luff pocket.

question:
Do you use the same boom height for slalom sailing, freeride sailing and wave sailing?
I have the feeling a higher boom is required with the more upright stance on FSW/wave boards.

been slowly raising my boom height for years.as your technique gets better usually you can get away with a little higher boom. most new to sport have boom very low for control.

a higher boom increases board lift significantly, so getting thru lulls should be easier.

downside is a higher boom means a more vertical stance which in turn results in less lateral push of feet in straps, which can mean your front foot starts coming out of footstrap[esp in chop].

time then to put boom down a little.

a higher boom makes a harder water start

I think it's very much a case of horses for courses with this one. For example on my quasi formula setup I run a very high boom (over head height). I do this for a number of reasons: firstly the board is pretty wide so when you're hiked out there your effective boom height is lower. The second and probably largest factor is that when you sail that type of gear you typically sail with the rig raked back as far as you can, this drastically lowers your effective boom height. The end result of the abnormal boom height when non planing is that when you're in the normal sailing position...it's pretty normal.

Conversely this setup on my wave gear feels straight up stupid. On wave gear I run my boom about chin height, or between shoulder and chin. Because you sail wave gear with the rig far more upright you don't get the variation in 'effective boom height' and I find sailing waves with my boom any higher than this frankly...difficult :)

Ah, that may explain why I've had problems keeping my front feet from slipping out of the straps at times, particularly over choppy water, though I only had my boom set halfway between shoulder and chest height which I didn't think would be considered overly high. When it did happen a lot, I put it down to footstrap positioning!

Another thing about boom height, I recently brought a new 93L freeride/slalom board to replace my much used 85L freeride board. Using the same rigs on the 93L with the same boom height and settings, the 93L felt like it was being held back and didn't go upwind as well as I expected it to. I raised the boom about 2-3cm from where I had been using it for some time (on the 85L) and the new board came to life! Now much better upwind with considerably more speed and control (don't think I could sail comfortably with the same boom height on the 85L though, did experiment with boom position many times on this board before finding the 'sweet spot').

well said! and the gospel starts at your chin.

shoulder height is low.

if you are strugling with the front foot try more downhaul or outhaul and longer lines as gingerpom says.

lol, that's true,

but doesn't mean it's right.

Peter Hart did an article a while ago where he started out with the premise that higher booms are better for everyone. He got one of his clients to raise their boom and found that they sailed worse, and were sailing better when they went back to their low boom height.

The article was called 'Gorilla Factor' I think, and he ended up comparing the lengths of peoples arms relative to their height. Not everyone has the same relative arm length, and not everyone sails well with a high boom.

Surely, everyone can try their booms at different heights and see how they perform and see the difference? I know myself when trying to plane a bit earlier I can raise the boom up to help, but if I am way overpowered I can lower it and feel more comfortable.

in the top photo i'd say your lines are too short for that boom height although i think the boom is good.

yes, and most of the booms are too low.

here is a photo of the guy who won





mk is another fast guy, he got the peak speed award one year.



i reckon you can pick those that have raced by where they rig their booms typically.

Gestalt,
Throw that one of Phil in the mix for comparison.

here ya go sausage





i think it's a neil pryde thing.

i'm onboard panda,

i posted those photos above as phil is regularly sailing up near 40 knots and is one of the quick guys in qld and runs a low boom.

sausage was onto it.