Formula downwind

[<tx7>]

Hi There,

I have been riding formula gear for about a year and have had a lot of fun but my biggest failure has been going downwind in big air. the last time I was out I rigged a Gaastra 8.3 Nitro 1 on my Bic 1.3. The outer guys rigged 9.8 Nitro 3's on Mistral Devil 2's. I could barely hold on going downwind in the chicken strap. They seemed to be handling the larger sail without a problem so I assume that my techique must be flawed. They said I was under rigged and that the downwind would have been easier with a bigger sail. I find this hard to believe since I was barely holding the 8.3 down. I light air I am one of the fast guys but in over 20kts I am in the back. By the way I am 5'11" and 175lbs
thanks
Frank

[sukhdev]

bunch of stuff here...if you can put up with my guesses:

i've used the 1.3 alot, and the nitro 1 8.3 is an all time classic (i had the battens in mine modified by Barry himself) so its a combo i know well.

firstly at 175lbs the 8.3 is small for a formula sail. its all relative. say you are reaching only at 12 to 20 knots, then the 8.3 would be fine but in the same wind range an expert sailor would be carrying 2 sq metres more.

secondly if you are using the sail in light air, chances are its not rigged lean and slippery with sufficent downhaul & outhaul. A tight leech is nightmare downwind. try rigging your sail to be really lean with good twist up top, you will & should feel much less low end power but the top end will increase by a lot. An expert sailor can use an 8.3 in the high 20s easily.

fin - what size/type of fin are you using? too large/too powerful a fin can make for a setup where the board will "porpoise" downwind.

lastly technique. check your stance, are you leaning back towards the tail of the board? is your back leg heavily weighted? when you lose control how does that happen, are you getting pulled foward into a catapult or do you end up heading upwind all the time?

my suggestion is:
- start with rerigging the sail. get it lean and twisty. for a refernce look at the picture of KP's rig in the article on stance in our technique section. see how lean the whole sail is.
get longer harness lines. make sure your boom height is ok, too low and too high a boom can both cause problems downwind.
- if that doesnt make things better, check your fin. beg/borrow/steal other fins and try.
- lastly (but more like concurrently to all the above) check your stance consciously. examine how you are leaning (fore/aft), which part of your body is being most loaded (legs? arms? harness hook).

one other thing to note - there is no straight line path downwind. you need to ride chop/swell to gain angle and speed and head up subtly when speed falls off too much when the angle becomes deep.

sailing downwind is scary, sometimes the biggest barrier is psychological. give it time.

[<IJ>]

Just like to add my experience with the Nitro 1, 8.3
I found that on the R6000 i needed a min of 2cm more downhaul than printed on the sail for lighter winds and 4cm more for the sort of winds a 95Kg sailor would use the sail in.
Without this extra downhaul i can imagine that it is a real handful downwind.
Try the extra downhaul next time

[tx7]

Thanks for the help,

I will try your suggestions on the next sail. The sail I have is a pre production one so their are no printed instructions on the sail. Only some hand written stuff. I am trying to use the sail in 18 to 30mph wind. This is the small sail in my quiver. 10,2 n2 9.3n1 are the other two sails.
  I feel like I am being pulled forward on the board and most of my weight is on my rear leg. I feel over powered to say the least.
 I sail in south Texas about a hundred miles north of Corpus Christi at a pllace called Indianola. The wind is very much like Corpus but the water is not as deep.