Mast Foot Position

[<ABC>]

Hi,

I am getting some conflicting advice on where I must put my mast foot. At the moment I put it in the middle but some people say I must move it back and some say forward. My board is a Carve 145, so which should I do for making it more smooth in choppy water?

[sukhdev]

Moving the mast track back makes for easier turning, moving it forward keeps the bow trimmed down. to find the right point, start some way back and keep edging it forward till the nose pitching gets reduced. this can be very small increments, on the RS75 a cm forward from where i thought it should be ended up making for a smoother more settled ride. mast foot adjustment often goes hand in hand with boom height too.

mast foot placed correctly will allow for good trim over chop and will make closing the gap easier and optimal.

[<ABC>]

Thanks. Maybe could you post some typical measurement from your experience on where to put the mast foot?

[sukhdev]

there is a remarkable amount of consistency in mast foot placement. below i've listed some measurements i made on boards i've sailed,some of these boards i've sailed alot. for conventional boards (wave,freestyle etc) i measure the mast foot placement from the tip of the tail. for boards with tuttle box (2 fin screws) I always measure from the first fin screw, since tails are so different. don't take these as gospel, they are what i would use, there would be variation based on sailor, sail, water state etc.

Freeride
Carve 131 117cm from 1st tuttle screw
Carve 151 117cm from 1st tuttle screw
Freeformula 158: 117cm from 1st tuttle screw

slalom/speed
RogueWave 49cm High wind slalom : 116cm from 1st tuttle screw
Thommen RS75 : 112cm from 1st tuttle screw
ML75 : 119cm from 1st tuttle screw
Hyper 111: 112 cm from 1st tuttle screw
Hyper 133: 112 cm from 1st tuttle screw

wave/freestyle
RogueWave 52cm : 133cm from tip of tail
RogueWave 56cm : 135cm from tip of tail
Fish 96        : 136cm from tip of tail
Freesex108     : 136cm from tip of tail

formula
Formula 138 '04 : 119cm from 1st screw (Thye's board)
Formula 147 '03 : 119cm from 1st screw (Chin Soo)
FW1.4           : 121cm from 1st screw

the distance from the first screw on a tuttle box to the tip of the tail is usually 20cm. Add that in and a very consistent picture emerges. Most modern boards of ANY type have their mast foot from 127 to about 138cm from the tip of the tail (if conventional tail, allow for flappers by measuring from the screw) or 50 to 54 inches for those metrically impaired.

Somewhere in this small space (ie a range of 10cm or less) is the sweet spot for your board. In rough water this spot will be a tad forward, same for large sails. The trick is to learn how much to edge the mast foot forward to the point where the nose just stops pitching but retains enough liveliness to make turning easy.

it would be interesting to have others post their measurements too, and compare.

[<ABC>]

Thanks for your detailed response. I am curious however at the setting for the Rogue wave slalom 49cm. This must be a very small board yet the mast foot is quite far forward. Should it not be more further back for a small board?

[forcez5]

ABC
where you place your mast foot depends on individual.
the best is you try until the position where you are MOST comfortable.
but if you move your mast foot here and there and in the end still dont know where is the G spot....i think nobody can help you.

[sukhdev]

ABC, that board is very small and gets used only in high winds, usually with a 5.0 or 5.9 race sail and a 28cm fin (sadly its been a while since it got used). In those conditions, the water is usually very choppy so the main control issue is keeping the nose down at speed, ie prevent tail walking. The only way to achieve this is with a mast foot well forward, lower boom and long harness lines.

[<RJ>]

Since we are on mast bases any thots on the pros'n'cons of mechanical joint vs tendon?

[sukhdev]

I've sailed tendon joints too many years to offer any real difference. I did use mechanical joints way back when... Lightning Raceboard i think, god ...1980s?? Good thing about tendons is you can sight wear and tear and replace them before failure.

What I wont use for sure is euro pin bases. they may be easy to remove etc but when they fail you end up with a nightmare, rig in your hand and board drifting away. Maybe its our warm tropic waters but from what I have seen the inner thread on the euro pin is prone to failure.

[Meng]

RJ,

Mechanical is not ideal for wave or jumping, it might not rotate properly or in time and will break. May even break your board in that situation.
Tendon mastfoot is the most prefered.

As for performance, can't really tell which is better.

Happy Sailing