Gybing Overpowered

[ascott72]

I know there have been several gybe threads on the forums before. What I am looking for specifically is advice on how to gybe when you are overpowered.

I gybe fine when I am not overpowered. I can bear off the wind, let the sail pull me into the turn, oversheet the sail to kill the power, carve the rail through the turn, flip the sail... But I have all kinds of problems when it is so windy that I can barely sheet in because if I can't sheet in, I can't oversheet to depower the sail.

Do I need to lay the sail down more?
Do I need to bear off the wind to reduce the pressure in the sail?
(Does it matter if the front hand grip is over or under? I use an overhand grip)

Thanks

[beallmd]

If you're doing everything right as you said then the simple advice is be very aggressive! Turn very hard, oversheet and throw very early. Anything else will end up wet. Sometimes you're sideways rather than upright while executing. Isobars must have some good comments- in fact a trip to the gorge and a few lessons there would be worth its weight in gold.

[isobars]

My jibe tips cover that. Google 'em. My approach requires FAR less physical effort than the overpowered jibe tutorial published in WSMag a couple of years ago, if their photos of mast bend in mid-jibe are any indication. Those photos made it look like wrestling grizzlies; my approach is relatively effortless ballet, using momentum and timing rather than force. It's your call: Rugby or Jujutsu.

More specific, but very incomplete, answers to your questions, covered more completely in Mike Fick's Jibe Tips:

Probably.

Nope; that makes the bear mad and increases the bear's strength. Disable the bear before you even bear off.

I throw my rig like a football pass for efficiency, accuracy, and speed. That requires an underhand grip, as every QB uses.

Mike \m/

[ascott72]

I sail at the Gorge - that's why I am overpowered half the time!

[ascott72]

Thanks.

Isobars, you have a ton of posts. It makes sifting through the search results difficult. Would you mind posting the link to your gybe tutorial?

I found the Mike Fick article:
http://www.stormchasers.org.za/tips/mikefickgybe.html

Here are some gybe clips from YouTube that were referenced in other posts. But I don't think they are that applicable to my questions since these guys are perfectly powered and on flat-water - very different from the overpowered, choppy water scenario I am talking about
Guy Cribb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlgogHJpAug
Dasher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkNJhwqpRBk

This one shows some more realistic conditions
Guide to Better Gybing
http://www.stableroad.com/videos/guidetobetterjibing.htm

[jingebritsen]

In the lightest of winds and strongest, duck jibes work best for me. But, lots of people won't try a new way to jibe unless they master their first type. Too bad. Some of my budd's over the years that I coached to try several turns in any given calendar period always mastered the duck first. But, like so many things, few people are willing to stray from the norm of being concrete sequential.... Human nature is rather strange, yet fascinating that way.

[andymc4610]

Big oversheet....hard to do sometimes but best way to spill power. Just do it hard and quick and be prepared for a tight jibe, flip the rig fast before you pearl.

[Mulekick84]

I find that shifting your back hand further back on the boom increases your leverage against the sail. It makes it easier to lay the sail down and oversheet. Number one tip to me!

As Andy states, it is a fast move and flip the sail. I will even push the sail or throw the sail with the back hand to speed its arrival on the new side. This keeps up your planing speed whereas any heisitation, or holding the sail too long, applies the brakes.

When sailing in the Gorge, another top secret trick is to gybe in the troughs. If you bank into a wave and are laying the sail down any at all, there should be no wind on the backside of the wave, and its Smooth water. Many people are affraid to gybe on the wave face and instead race into the choppy flats and then are forced to add difficulty to their gybe/jibe, which tends to make the sailor carve a long downwind turn, losing valuable speed, causing balance inefficiencies, and greatly increasing difficulty. Capeesh?? Jibe on the waves, its like cheating!!!


RIP

[fxop]

We focus so much on the back hand oversheeting that the crucial role of having the front arm fairly straight gets underrated. You can't oversheet unless the front arm is straight. Sailing on a beam reach normally the mast is over the board and the clew is trimmed 1 or 2 ft from the tail of the board. To oversheet you want to reverse the normal trim -- clew over the tail and luff open, mast downwind to the inside of the turn.

If you are totally OP it's hard to oversheet until you get some pressure off the sail by rolling into the turn slowly and picking up some downwind speed. As pressure comes off the sail you can sheet in more, raking the sail back until it hits your shins. At that point you are done and you need to unwind it all and start stepping/flipping.

If you sail higher into the wind to begin your entry you take pressure off the sail. Then you can roll in gradually from a more stable position. There is a tendency to unsheet as you enter since you are moving your body over the board to carve. Even a moment's unsheeting as you enter the turn in OP conditions can be fatal to your ambitions, so be careful to resist the tendency to unsheet as you roll in.

[isobars]