harness position

[jason]

hi would like to ask bout the harness lines this time round
how much strain should i  feel on my hand when seated in my harness?
should i  have completely no pull on both hands ?
bcoz i always experience a certain amount of pull on both hands (prob coz i  am not seated in the harness enuff?)
and am i  rite to say tt if i sort of collapse the sail when seated in and hiked out, my harness lines are too short?

[sukhdev]

quote: how much strain should i feel on my hand when seated in my harness?
 

In normal cruising, not overpowered, you should be able to take your hands off the boom. This means your bodyweight and leg drive takes most of the power of the rig through your harness hook. Try to sail without your hands touching the boom for short periods. This should give you the correct feeling. If when you let go, the mast falls towards you then the lines are too far forward, if the mast falls away then the lines are too far back (rare).

 

quote: should i have completely no pull on both hands ?
 

In light winds as i described above, you can get away with barely using your hands. In strong winds what you want is the harness bears all the load but when you get hit by big gusts you bring your back arm into play by being able to smoothly sheet in your back hand. This is only possible if the harness lines are balanced in placement and length

 

quote: bcoz i always experience a certain amount of pull on both hands (prob coz i am not seated in the harness enuff?)
and am i rite to say tt if i sort of collapse the sail when seated in and hiked out, my harness lines are too short?
 

If you are sailing with arms bent and shoulders hunched forward you will feel the pull in both arms no matter what. Roll your shoulders back and lean your head back out.
I'm not sure what you mean by collapsing the sail, short harness lines cause the sailor to be locked to the rig which makes control in choppy water and high wind very difficult. For your height you should be running from 22" to 26" or so.

[jason]

thankz sukhdev for ur reply
what happens is that in an effort to keep myself hiked out, i  tend to bring the sail along with me instead of keeping it upright, does tt mean my harness lines are too short?
can never get the harness position and posutre right...as i  still feel some pull on my arms even when seated on the harness...

[sukhdev]

Jas, these things are rarely one factor, I can think of a couple of things that are making you pull the rig down over you:

- short lines: as you mentioned this may be a factor but if your lines are in the 22 to 26 inch range the length should be fine.

- hunching your upper body to the boom with bent arms. This is usually the case when a sailor does not relax and use the harness hook. Try to stay as upright as possible in light air, let the rig stay upright as well. Make sure you are standing square to the board, ie knees, hips, shoulders are all parallel to the centre line of the hull.

- stance twisted forward: this happens when sailors twist their shoulders in the direction they are going. This puts weight on the back leg and prevents the back arm from sheeting in. The front arm gets very bent and the semi powered rig is pulled down and over the sailor. The board rocks back on its tail making matters worse.

You've recognized the problem, you are halfway to the cure. Keeping the rig as upright as possible presents the most sail area to the wind so its critical for speed.

[<KJ>]

Hello Sukhdev,

I'm the longboard newbie, forgive me if I'm sorely mistaken but i have been given to belive that when windsurfing, I should adopt a stance that faces forwards so that my shoulders are semi-squared to the direction I'm going! And I also thought that my weight should be transmitted to my rear foot to drive my board upwind?

I just started learning how to use my harness and I just came across these points in my reading. Do hope that you could enlighten me on that...

Also, I'm 1.7 m tall at 70 kg, somehow I don't feel comfortable with the longer lines that are recommended for beginners. At 24" I feel that i'm hanging so far out of the board that i'm about to fall off! Any comments?

[<24 inches long.>]

Hi KJ,What height your boom at? 24"not considered long on long/raceboard.At your height,your boom should be set at your nose level (standing on your board)if you are using a seat harness.If you are on wave/waist harness,the boom should be higher(forehead) level.If you are hooked in and powered,you should not feel like falling off.But if you are,and have not fallen off,the feeling of full powered planning will eventually override your feeling of falling.My advise is enjoy first,you'll get used to it and you can fine tune as you progress.
Happy sailing.