Blast from the past

Chris Thompson, one of the founders of LBWS, has a proud windsurfing history having been around in the beginning of a great sport and competing against the likes of legends such as Robby Naish and Phil McGain. Over the years Chris has sailed a plethora of boards and competed at a high level in both windsurfing and many dingy classes including the very competitive Laser Class. As well as being a talented sailor Chris is a great commentator on windsurfing and sailing in general. He has been writing on sailing and windsurfing in particular for more than 25 years. No doubt you would have seen some of his material on LBWS as well as his contributions on other forum under the name of CT249.

In flicking through an old windsurfing magazine recently, I came across an article that Chris wrote back in 1985 on Longboard Technique. The article titled “Handling and Sailing High Performance Longboards” is obviously a little out of date, particularly the pictures and some of the references to the boards of the day. Notwithstanding, it makes great reading and most of the handling and technique recommendations are still of relevance to longboard sailors today. So…. have a read…have a giggle at the pictures and learn a bit on the way. Be warned it’s a bit of a thesis, perhaps we should start calling him “Dr Chris”

Longboard Technique –
Handling and Sailing High Performance Longboards
AB (Australian Boating) Sailboards - May 1985

A quick study of your board can reveal a lot about its performance characteristics. Long funboards range from 3.9m to a bare 3.5, with volumes going from the 260L of the latest racing customs to 170L for the smaller boards designed for strong winds. Generally speaking the longer and higher volume the board, the faster it will be through the full range of conditions. That’s because length and volume are the key to light and moderate wind speed, and upwind performance in any wind. Small boards are very fast when reaching in strong winds but they are too slow upwind and in light winds to be successful on the race course. Most long funboards have around 200L volume – a touch too small for top class racing but a good compromise.

If big boards excel in straight line speed, then turning is the shorter board’s best point, their smaller size allowing tighter radius, faster turns, with less effort. In contrast the big racing boards can require a lot of practice and effort to turn well. Narrow tailed boards are generally easiest to gybe, but the wider squashtail boards have an advantage in early planing.

Carve gybing and foot steering ability is largely dependant on the shape of the rails at the tail – the tighter and sharper, the better. Further up the board, however, the tails become very thick and square to give good volume and upwind performance.

Most long funboards carry a rather small centreboard, around 60cm deeps and 200cm broad. A smaller centreboard will harm pointing ability, especially in light winds, while a larger one will provide a vastly improved upwind performance at the cost of a tendency to rail ride in strong winds. Some of the best racing boards, like the F2 Lightning and HiFly Race, make up for a lack of centreboard size with their hull length.

The current buzzword in long funboards is concaves. These channels running through the bottom of the board do provide lift and push the board onto the plane earlier, making concave boards exceptionally fast in moderate winds, especially when close reaching. But some production concave boards are very short, around 3.55m. This makes them slow in light winds, when they can’t plane even with the concaves. And a good ‘conventionally’ shaped boards can be just as fast in most conditions and faster in very light (less than 7-10 knots) or very strong (22 knots plus) winds, especially in a chop or swell.

CENTREBOARDS
A fully retracting centreboard is virtually mandatory on a funboard – if the centreboard protrudes more than about 2” from eh underside of the hull when fully retracted, then it is almost not a funboard at all, and gybing and high speed performance will definitely be decreased.

The biggest advantage of a fully retracting centreboard comes reaching and running at high speeds. To fulfil its purpose (i.e., stopping the board from sliding sideways when going upwind) a centreboard will develop hydrodynamic lift. That’s fine when sailing at low to moderate speeds. But when the board is reaching along in a fin nor’easter hitting 20 knots or more in the puffs, the centreboard develops too much lift, and rises to the surface suddenly, throwing rig, board and sailor over in an impressive cloud of spray. It’s known as a capsize fall, and used to be one of the biggest bugbears of high wind boardsailing. The introduction of fully retracting centreboards, which slide into their case and out of harm’s way with a kick, solved the problem. With the centreboard full retracted, carve gybes and foot steering are also possible.

Upwind sailboards are moving at a much lower speed, so the centreboard can be left down most of the time without capsize falling. In strong winds though, some sailboards are moving fast enough to windward to cause some capsize falling and involuntary rail riding problems. There are several ways of overcoming the problem. One is to simply sheet out and de-power the sail, slowing the board down. Another is to ease the sheet only slightly and rely on your feet, securely embedded in the footstraps, pressing down with your heels along the rail. The board will still probably heel to anything up to 45 degrees, but at around that angle, the centreboard will often suddenly caviate and drop the board back onto an even keel with a thud. This technique is the fastest but also demanding.
But the most effective solution is to rake the centreboard back in tis case. This reduces the wetted surface of the centreboard (and hence its lift) and reduces any tendency for the board to round up in gusts. The only problem is that the board tends to point lower, which is important only in racing.

In overpoweringly strong winds good long funboards can drive upwind well with the centreboard fully retracted. Instead of standing forward and relying on the centreboard to stop the board from sliding sideways the sailor just stands well back on the tail, retracts the centreboard, and sails the long board to windward like a waveboard, relying on the lateral resistance of the windward rail that is dug into the water, to stop the board from sliding sideways. Obviously the board will point much lower, but the big improvement in speed over the water will mean that there is surprisingly little ground lost.

In ‘survival’ conditions, the centreboard rotation control can be vitally important. When you are blasting along at 20 knots, the board bouncing from wave to wave, the impact of the hull touching down tends to drive the centreboard down from the fully retracted position. And as soon as a couple of inches of centreboard are protruding from the hull the board will take a high bounce, lift into the air, and roll over into a capsize fall.

The best way to avoid this is with adjustable shims in the centreboard case, as seen in the popular ‘Allgier’ system. By tightening the shims with a screwdriver the centreboard is gripped more firmly, ensuring that it won’t move up or down accidentally.
Without adjustable shims you’re reduced to fitting rubber pads or tape to the centreboard or centreboard case to stop it sliding.

Of course there is another way. You can leave the stock centreboard set up as it is. That way, when it is blowing 30 knots and you’re hopping from wave to wave, struggling to stay afloat and on top of the water, all you have to do is tear yourself out of the back straps and reach one trembling foot forward to kick the centreboard back up into the box every few seconds – and that’s a real lot of fun…!

Most of the time the centreboard is right up or right down, but there are occasions when leaving just a little of the board protruding helps. ‘Conventional’ long funboards often require about 2” of daggerboard to hold them on course on a close reach. Concave boards, which have three Vee sections running down their length, don’t seem to have the problem of drifting to leeward as much.
The centreboard can also be down when running off the breeze in light winds. The idea is that having a bit of centreboard down makes the board more responsive to the quick non carving turns you need to make to catch waves.

FINS
Forget ‘footys’, ‘socks’, ‘Stratas’ and ‘Toucans’ – the perfect long funboard fin is a simple, but very large skeg. Because they are so long and skinny, long funboards do not spin out much, so they do no require the anticavitation features of waveboard fins. The big (up to 12” deep), simple skegs have enough depth to be efficient upwind, their size keeps the board tracking well, and they have less drag that the waveboard fins. If the fin is too small or too flexible the board will tend to travel sideways on a close reach, with the back of the board feeling too ‘loose’. The ultimate longboard fun is probably a 12” fibreglass skeg with a good foil and a basically rectangular outline.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK
One of the trademarks of a good long funboard is the mast track. It’s vital on the racing boards, it improves speed, and it makes foot steering much easier. But like everything else on a sailboard, they must be used properly – ignoring or misusing the track simply makes life harder.

Like just about every feature (bar concaves) of the long funboard, mast tracks were developed from the late, lamented Pan Am World Cup in Hawaii. Basically, it is a 10-18” long track with a sliding car that the mast foot fits into. Teeth cogs or ropes, operated by a foot pedal, hold the sliding car at various positions. Some systems offer an infinite variety of positions. Others offer only three stops, but the owner can modify the track to create additional ‘stations’ in most of these. Basically three positions are needed – all the way forward, all the way back, and a third position about halfway along the track. Ease of adjustment while sailing is vital – a good track system is one that can be adjusted without de-powering the rig or slowing the board at all. At one extreme, there are tracks like the expensive but superlative Fleetwood tracks (used by virtually all top World Cup sailors): at the other, there are the early production board tracks with the foot pedal sited on the mast foot – these are hard to operate, can be impossible to move without letting the sail flap, and generally make hard work of it.

So what does this expensive ($200-$270), sometimes complicated and fashionable feature do? Basically it allows the centre of effort (in the rig) to be moved without excessive raking of the rig. You could get almost the same results by simply leaning the rig back and forth – but that results in some very inefficient angles for the rig, and some strange positions for the sailor!

When sailing upwind, the mast should be at the front of the track. This shifts the centre of effort (about one third of way back on the rig) forward of the board’s centre of lateral resistance (around the centreboard). This stops the board from tending to round up in strong gusts (as most all rounders do), making sailing upwind in a breeze much, much easier. The track also improves speed and pointing ability upwind by pushing the bow down into the water, increasing the waterline length (the key to upwind performance) and pushing the thick square rails in the centre of most long funboards down in the water where they can stop the board from sliding sideways. Of course, you could accomplish all this by just having a single mast step well forward. The secret of the mast track is that it creates two boards from one. For when the long funboard bears off into a fast planing reach the mast foot is pulled to the rear of the track. The rig comes back, and the sailor can stand farther out of the water and effectively making the board shorter – with all the benefits of a short board’s low wetted surface (low drag), shorter length (more manoeuvrability) and more speed. With the bow out of the water the 12’ long funboard planes along on the rear six or seven feet of hull much with much greater speed and manoeuvrability.

Without a track you could just angle rig right back – but that enormous tilt would make the rig hard to control, increase the chances of ‘tip-stall’ in the sail, and allow the boom to drag in the water. And when you moved forward to grab the mast through a gybe the bow would be pushed down, slowing the turn. Not all boards need mast tracks. All-rounders, with their volume carried right into the end and their concentration on simplicity and sturdiness, are just as well off without tracks – after all most all-rounder sailors are not into wind sailing and beginners just find tracks confusing irrelevant and always in the way. Nor do short boards need tracks – they are too small to need the centre of effort and weight shifted around as easily. And some simpler long funboards prefer to do without the expense and hassle of the track, accepting a slight loss in performance. But tracks are an integral part of the high performance long funboard or raceboard.

USING THE MAST TRACK
Almost all tracks have the foot pedal sited at the rear of the track, sits ahead of the centreboard case. In this position it is reasonably easy to operate the pedal with our front foot, even in strong winds. A few tracks have the pedal sitting just behind the centreboard case. Because it is so close to your rear foot this is an even better system, especially in heavy winds when it can be difficult to lean forward to hit a conventionally sited pedal. The older tracks with the pedal mounted on the sliding car itself, are less than successful. Its difficult to reach forward and grab the pedal in strong winds and leaves the sailor in danger of catapulting as one foot is stretched right forward and the other is left in the back strap. It is also very difficult to drag the rig back along the track when you’re leaning that far forward.

Sliding the rig to the front s normally easy, thanks to the pressure of the wind pushing forward. When it comes to dragging the mast foot back again, against the press of the wind, some production tracks are very hard to budge. With these tracks it can be a good idea to stretch a length of shock cord, polyurethane surfers leg rope or bungy between the mast foot and one of the rear footstraps. Often seen on top Pan Am racing boards in the days before their mast tracks were perfected, this bungy’s pull aft can make a big difference to the east of using the track. Racing sailors occasionally modify even the best tracks, filing down the back edge of the teeth or cogs, so that the car slides back easily without the need to touch the pedal once the first few inches of track are passed. Just remember that the sliding car must stay in place even when the rig is pushed back through a tack or when the car is halfway along the track, and don’t file down ALL the teeth.

Mast tracks might spend most of their time rattling back and forth from one extreme of the track to the other but intermediate positions can be faster in some conditions. In light winds and non planing conditions waterline length is vital, so the track should be all the way forward even when reaching. As the wind increases to marginal planing conditions the mast foot creeps back, but always make sure that the stern is not dragging low in the water – a real speed killer. If your board is short (say under 3.7m) it is often better to leave the track forward even in 12-15 knot winds, when longer boards have their tracks right back – simply because short boards need to use all their waterline length.

At the other end of the wind scale, survival conditions, the mast foot can be placed in the middle of the track once more. This time the idea is to stop the board from bouncing around and spinning out by pushing the long, straight stretch of rails in the middle of the board back in the water to make the board ‘stiffer’/ Leaving the mast foot in the middle of the track also makes quick tacking easier, which can be important in puffy conditions and tight courses.

SECURITY
There is nothing quite as bad as swimming after your board a dew miles offshore, with your rig sinking behind you and the board being blown away up ahead! Rig security is vitally important to the offshore sailor especially, and a mast tracks are a definite weak point. Many mast tracks (Mistral, HiFly, Lipssticks, Windrush and Fleetwood are very secure, because there is no way that the sliding car can come off the track. On some other tracks the retainer is a fragile slip of plastic. Fitting a mast leash or a more secure method of retaining the track car could save your life. So, check your track carefully, remembering that in 30 knots a runaway rig can smash a plastic fitting. And once unencumbered by the rig dragging alongside, a sailboard can blow away much faster than you can swim…

OPERATING THE MAST TRACK
Using a mast track properly demands practise. The first few times that you try to haul one back it might seem impossible against the power of the wind; but with any decent track a bit of practise, and the right technique, make is a snap.

Pushing the mast foot forward in the track is normally pretty easy, because all the power of the wind is pushing the rig to the bow. Going from a reach to a work the routine is a to take your front foot out of the windward strap and bounce on the pedal, pushing down and forward with your arms on the wishbone, tilting the rig back as well as pushing it forward. This is when a track-car mounted pedal comes in handy, for it is easy to push the mast foot forward while you press the pedal, but generally, pushing the mast forward is a pretty easy manoeuvre with any track.

Racing sailors of the top rank generally drop the centreboard down before sliding the mast forward, because this allows a tighter turn around the leeward mark. In strong winds and chop this technique might make the average sailor round up out of control, so generally it is better to push the mast track forward, and then drop the centreboard and head up onto a close hauled course.

Heading from a work onto a reach and pulling the rig back is the opposite, in timing and in difficulty. This time, the wind is pushing against the sailor as you try to heave back on the wishbones.

As you bear away the first priority is lifting the centreboard to avoid capsize falls and allow foot steering. It can be hard to swing the centreboard up against the side pressure when you are going to windward, but it is always easy to kick up once you are heading downwind and there are no side loadings. As soon as the centreboard comes up and the rear foot is in one of the back straps its time to bring the mast back. Just like gybing, it is best to be moving fast to reduce the apparent wind and the load on the rig. If you are sailing in swell or it might be best to wait until the board is surfing down a wave, with little load on the rig. Then, with front foot on the mast track and your body leaning towards the stern for better leverage, lift your arms back and UP to pull the mast foot back. It should not be necessary to ease sheet and spill wind.

Stiff primitive mast tracks might not move with this method. In that case it can be best to drop your front hand down from the wishbone to the mast, about 18” below the booms, and heave back on the mast itself, while easing out your back hand to luff and de-power the sail.

A good set of stiff, secure booms can be a surprising help here. If the booms are loosely tied and wobble on the mast, any upward pull from your hands will be much less effective – yet another reason why a tight inhaul is vital on a funboard.
Lifting up and back on your wishbones, and making sure that the apparent wind is as low as possible, makes pulling the mast foot back much easier. But remember that it takes a while to get used to using a track, or even changing from one type of track to another; and that the result, in added speed and ease of handling, is well worth the effort.

FOOT STEERING
Once the board starts to plane fast, reaching in 12-15 knots of wind, you can forget about struggling with tilting the rig forward or back or shuffling your feet around, in an effort to slowly turn the board. Instead you simply flex your legs and hang on while the board swoops and turns itself. Foot steering is, of course, steering a board by tilting and banking it, just like a surfboard or a ski. Any long funboard worth the name will have all the necessities for foot steering – sharp tight rails at the rear, a narrow, low volume tail, a well shaped bottom, and a fully retracting centreboard. The tighter and lower volume the rails are, the better the turning and carving ability (all else being equal). A shorter board is easier to turn than a longer, racier machine. And a well Veed tail is easier to bank than a thick, full concave tail.

To foot steer, the board must be on a full plane (hence the need for at least 12 – 15 knots of wind), with the centreboard retracted. You can foot steer with some centreboard down, but not as effectively. So now you’ve arranged the wind and the board, and are planing along on a beam reach (wind at right angles to the board) in 20 knots of wind. To carve a turn to leeward, thrust forward with your knees and push downwards with your toes (in the footstraps), while lifting with your heels. The board should tilt to leeward at about 15 – 35 degrees, and carve a gentle curve to leeward with the lee rail biting deeply.

To turn back into the wind simply straighten and stretch your legs, pushing down with your heels to tilt the board windward. At the same time you must lift the leeward rail with the toes of your rear foot, letting the windward rail dig deep and steer the board to windward. The board’s rails are controlling the turning – remember to think of them as your main control edges.

The sail is not moved while you are foot steering – just hang off the rig, keeping it trimmed at the same angle to the wind for maximum power. It’s all so much easier than struggling with the rig as you do on an all-rounder.

Of course foot steering does take a toll of speed. Rocking the board from rail to rail and the hull’s angle takes a toll of efficiency, so it is best to bear away on a wave face if possible – even a few inches of chop will keep the board speed up, preventing the board from dropping off the plane. For once the board drops off the plane the edges stop controlling it, foot steering becomes totally ineffective and sometimes has the opposite effect than you intended!

CARVE GYBING
The carve gybe is a gybe where the board is foot steered through the turn, ‘carving’ through the 180 degree arc. It’s the fastest and most efficient way of gybing once the board is planing fast – but more important, it’s a lot of fun! Long funboards are not easy to gybe, compared to a short funboard or waveboard. They turn through a much wider arc, which can allow the board to lose momentum and speed. And as soon as the long funboard drops off the plane that long nose hits the water, stopping the turn and forcing the sailor to complete the gybe in the standard less efficient fashion using the rig. The advantage a long board has is that it will still float even if you muff the gybe, where a short board would dive to the bottom!

Once again, the carve gybe is performed while beam reaching in more than 12-15 knots of wind with centreboard right up. The first step is a quick look through the sail window to ensure that there is no one behind and to leeward that you are going to gybe into (while gybing or tacking a board has no right of way).

Take your back foot out of the rear strap, placing it to leeward of the strap, on the rail. This give you much more leverage when you thrust forward with your knees and down with your toes as you carve around.

As you start carving, the board will heel to around 25-35 degrees of bank. Your foot movements must be committed and steady – being timid or bouncy will ruin the gybe. As the board careers around, keep the sail trimmed for maximum power, to keep up the speed that is so vital to the carve gybe. Leaning forward and pushing down on the wishbones to press on the mast foot, will also keep the board flat and planing fast through the turn.

So far the long board gybe is little different from throwing a sinker around. But where the short board would quickly pivot around and be away on the new gybe, the long funboard will still be carving a long turn, slowing down all the while. By the time the stern is pointing to the wind, with the turn half completed, most long boards will have slowed right down. It’s this time that is a danger, because the apparent wind will increase as the board speed decreases, increasing the load on the rig and threatening to tear it out of the sailor’s hands. Even if the sailor can hang onto the heavily loaded rig, he’ll find it hard to gybe and sheet in.

If the turn has been smooth, committed and the sailor is not standing too far back and dragging the tail, the board should be able to carve around the 180 degree turn. If the wind is light it is important to keep power on until the board is heading on the new reach. So, in less than 15-18 knots it is often best to keep the sail sheeted in even when you are sailing on the new tack, sailing clew first until the board accelerates up to speed again and the rig can be safely gybed. Once the board is planing fast again you can drop your back hand onto the mast, letting the rig pivot around onto the new gybe before grabbing the new windward booms with the back hand, sheeting in the rig and accelerating away. It’s vital to sheet in quickly, for otherwise the sailor’s will force the nose up into the wind – thereby losing all the ground you’ve just gained with a perfect gybe!

In stronger winds the board will plane fast through the gybe without the need to sail clew first. Then it can be better to gybe the rig over just as the stern swings through the eye of the wind. It will be much easier to handle the power of a strong wind if you sheet on while the board is still arcing downwind, with the apparent wind reduced by the board’s speed. It is also extremely difficult to hold a sail clew first in winds of more than about 20 knots – the rig will weathercock into the wind, and the board will tend to head into the breeze.

There are no hard and fast rules for timing your foot movements. Some prefer to do it when the board is tail to wind, halfway through the gybe. Others let the board complete the gybe, sheeting in and accelerating before untwisting their body and dropping into the ‘new’ footstraps. This technique avoids unnecessarily rocking the board and allows the sailor to concentrate on banking the board properly and flipping the rig quickly – the most vital aspects of a good long board gybe.

One of the most common mistakes is to lean too far back through the gybe. By pushing the nose too high and the tail too low, this slows the board down dramatically – and once the board drops off the plane and that long nose hits the water – you’re in trouble!

GYBING WITH FLARE
Carve gybing is a planing manoeuvre, requiring at least 12-15 knots of wind. In light airs the long funboard is restricted to the slow stop gybe or sail gybe – or the much faster and more interesting flare gybe.

The flare gybe is the opposite of the carve gybe. Instead of being a large radius, high speed arc with centreboard retracted and the inside rail dropped, it is a very tight, low speed U-turn with the centreboard down and the outside rail sunk deep. The flare gybe is normally thought of as an all-rounder manoeuvre, but it is easier and more effective to do on a long funboard, with its low volume tail and light rails.

Reaching along in 8-10 knots of wind, the first move is to kick the centreboard down. Then start to steer the board away from the wind steering with the sail, as you quickly move right back to the tail, driving it under water. As you move back and the stern starts to sink you must over sheet the sail and sink the outside rail about 10-20 degrees – the alternative is that the board will quickly swing head to wind and you’ll get very wet! With the outside rail sunk and the sailor up to his or her ankles, or even knees, in the water the stern will quickly swing around as the board pivots around the centreboard.

As the stern of the board starts to pass through the eye of the wind begin to move forward, leaving the sail clew first in the old position and still trimmed for speed. As the board heads up onto the new course, step forward and get the board level once more, moving your back hand from the boom to the mast, allowing the rig to pivot through the gybe, and sheet back in quickly. Sheeting in too slowly will make the board head up into the wind, luffing the sail and throwing you off.
You will probably come out of the flare gybe with little speed, but the turn is so tight that it is a very useful racing manoeuvre – and a lot more fun to do in light winds than a slow gybe or tack.

TACKING A FUNBOARD
A funboard tacks like any other long board – the difference is that the big distance between the centreboard and mast foot (especially when it is right forward_ makes the tack more difficult and slower. There is a lot more stretching and pulling than on any other type of board, and even the best sailors find a long funboard slow to tack – it’s one of the reasons why they are not as tactical to race.

The tack is started in the conventional way, taking your back foot out of the strap and pushing hard on the windward rail to spin the board with both hands on the wishbone raking the rig right back. Because funboards are so hard to turn, it can be worthwhile moving your front foot right back too, although it makes it harder to balance.

Eventually the board will start to turn head to wind. Then it is the time to move the front hand onto the mast and pull the rear hand in even more, oversheeting the rig until the boom is over to windward of the board. One front foot is placed just ahead of the mast foot – it’s a long and uncomfortable stretch, particularly on a racing board. As the board finally comes head to wind it is time to release the back hand, move forward of the mast and pivot your body around onto the new tack. But the long funboard will not bear off as quickly as an all-rounder, so you stay up near the mast foot and pushing the nose away from the wind. Keep your weight on your heels to lift the leeward rail and ensure that it does not catch the water, while grabbing the wishbone with one hand, raking the rig forward, and over sheeting the sail. As the board finally comes around onto the new tack move your feet and hands back and relax!