Hi all,
Found a spare hour for a sail this morning in light winds. Am at the stage of tuning my rig, board etc so that eventually sailing in stronger winds will become more comfortable and controlled.
Obviously harness lines positioning has an influence, so ......today while sailing across the wind, as desired, leaning into the harness and hands on boom, I tried something: I took my hands off the boom. What I noticed though was that my board changed direction slightly (rounded up wind a bit). I imagine this effect would be exaggerated in stronger winds. My question is: when sailing along, while leaning into the harness, if you take your hands off the boom, should the board NOT change direction IF harness lines are positioned correctly?
Happy sailing!
There's a number of different things that could be happening, but there are two ways to steer a windsurfer.
One way is to use the board, by weighting a rail. Basically, if you're planing then the board will turn in the direction of the weighted rail, and this is referred to as "foot steering". There's an exception to this, which has to do with what they call "railing up" which is a result of fin pressure, but we're getting into advanced territory with that, and I don't think you're there yet :)
If, however, you're not planing (were you planing?) then the board will turn in the direction opposite to the weighted rail. I might be corrected on this though as I know a centerboard also impacts this, but I know you're not using a centerboard.
The other way to steer is using your sail. Tilting the mast forward or aft will point you downwind or upwind, respectively.
Windsurfing is a fluid sport, like most others. So you can't just take your hands off the boom and expect to remain on exactly the same course. In theory, yes, but not in actuality. If you take your hands off the boom then the sail balance will likely change and even your weight on the board will likely change. It might only be subtle, but it will impact the direction in which you're traveling.
I would think that if you took your hands off the boom and you rounded up into the wind, then your sail was falling aft to some degree, in which case you wouldn't have been letting go of it for very long.
I suggest you checkout Guy Cribbs harness line article: www.guycribb.com/userfiles/documents/The%20Truth%20About%20Harness%20Lines.pdf
Guy Cribb has plenty of good infor for beginners right through to advanced sailors.
Good luck.
Easiest way to explain this is to see if you can let go of the boom at least 3 seconds in consistent wind only, feet out of the straps and not planning . If the rig is still balanced at 3 seconds, then your harness lines are most likely in the correct spot. Any longer than 3 seconds, you risk a surprise gust, then you risk a catapult, which is no good. When you start planning and your in the straps, you might have to ever so slightly fine tune the harness lines a little, but not much. The 3 second rule, not planning, not in the straps will pre set your harness line position. Then fine tune them and you're ready to rock N roll!!
Have fun with it!!!
Select to expand quoteAUS4 said..
If you buy a North sail the harness line position is marked on the sail. 
Yeah I miss that feature with my other sails ..it's spot on every time .
try taking both hands off the boom ,that's a true reading of balance .
it could also be boom height .if its low it puts more weight on the front foot .pushing you down wind.
in your case the opposite .
try shifting your harness line back first .
Select to expand quoteAUS4 said..
If you buy a North sail the harness line position is marked on the sail.
With texta?? Pimp 
Select to expand quoteka43 said..AUS4 said..
If you buy a North sail the harness line position is marked on the sail.
With texta?? Pimp
I use North and I find the markings too far forward , mabee 2" . Theres no way I could let go of the boom at that setting. But I'm heavy so I'm probably using them overpowered. 
In perfect wind ( and it never is where I am ) , you could I suppose , balance things perfectly like in a NeilPryde video. But that's like being in a dream. In reality things change as the wind gusts. The stronger the wind the more back hand the force is. I personally like it balanced when nicely powered and then fight the back hand in gusts , others like it the other way around. So it will never be perfect , that's normal.
I prefer to set my lines further back than 'balanced'. I basically have a good bit of pull on my front hand most of the time and very little at all on my back hand. My harness takes maybe 95% of my back hand and 65% of the front (I'm making the numbers up, they are just a guide) .
Taking my back hand off the boom is easy and changes very little. Taking my front hand off is tricky indeed and involves pushing the boom away with my back hand. Lots of weight in my harness.
Sometimes in lighter winds I'll sail for a while with both hands in front of the harness lines.
I have no idea if anyone else does this but it certainly works for me!
Select to expand quoteAUS4 said...
If you buy a North sail the harness line position is marked on the sail.
In a fanatic north hire centre right now and I do find the markings to be spot on. Maybe they should be back a little when overpowered.
Thankyou all!
Playing with a few things now, and lines ended up a little further back on the boom yesterday. A few more knots than forecast too, so had some fun runs on the local lake, and in good control of my newly acquired Tabou manta!
Will keep tweakin' it bit by bit and look forward to some strong winds.
Regards,
Andrew
