Racing sails - shape & rigging

Barracouta Sails has been building longboard racing sails since 1980, over that time the sails have evolved a lot from Dacron soft sails set on soft fibreglass masts, to the monofilm and camber induced sails set on carbon fibre masts of today. Longboard sail design is very different from Formula sails, I consider that what works for one won’t work for the other.

What I am looking for in a Longboard sail, is that it has enough power, (depth and tightness of the leech). I would always sail a Longboard with an adjustable outhaul and I think it is handy to have an adjustable downhaul it is helpful but not as necessary as the adjustable outhaul.

If you are intending on using one sail from nil to twenty knots maybe consider carrying two sets of battens, a stiff set for high winds and a softer set for pumping lighter conditions.

When rigging the sail, start with sliding the mast in and set up the boom, then set the downhaul to a moderate tension to put some pre bend in the mast, this is important so that the drive doesn’t move around in the sail uncontrollably. As the wind increases you should increase the amount of downhaul this looseness the leech and puts more pre bend in the mast.

Outhaul adjustment is used more for upwind and downwind conditions pull the outhaul on to flatten the luff, move the draft aft and tighten the leech for upwind sailing, for downwind release the outhaul and move the drive forward, round out the luff flatten the leech and loosen the leech.

A stiff set of battens for high winds and a softer set for pumping in lighter conditions

Ease off the downhaul for a nice fat shape powered up for light winds

On a reach release the outhaul to move the drive forward