Jibing a 12m sail

[lrrry]

All,

After reading some great advise on jibing on chop, I thought I ask for some tips on jibing a 12m sail.

I'm sailing a 12 to 12.5 meter sail on a Prodigy or a Starboard 160 Formula and looking for some tips to fishing the jibe, which is difficult for me.

This is in fairly light winds of around 10 to 12 knots, and often getting enough speed is hard.

For the Prodigy board, seems to require more wind, especially when sheeting in during the beginning. Very hard to keep the speed up, and once it slows, it becomes hard to carve the turn.

For the Formula Board, it turns quicker, and does will into the sail flip, but hard to get a good exit. After reading the thread on chop jibing, I think I'll try using my body for the "C" turn (Mike's hip swing) and more aggressively flipping the sail.

Thoughts?

Larry
St. Pete, FL

[techno900]

Larry,

With 10-12 knots of wind and a 12.0, you should be able to get pretty good speed, at least on the 160. I have a 160 and an 11.0 and weight 76kg (167 lbs). I guess you are probably heavier. In 10-12 knots of wind, your board speed should be close to doubling the wind speed if the water isn't too choppy.

However, even with pretty good speed, I find it hard to do a planing gybe all the way through. I do better planing gybes with a 9.2 or 8.4 and higher winds on the 160.

Knees bent, body upright, and tighten your core muscles. Keep your radius large. If you turn too tight, you will loose too much speed. Be sure you step all the way across the board or the board will "wobble" as you try to carve your turn. With such big sails, the flip has to happen at exactly the right time (just after you cross the neutral point - board speed and wind speed the same), so that there is a little tail wind to help flip the sail around. If you flip too soon (moving faster than the wind), the sail flip will slow you down. If you flip too late (moving much slower than the wind), the force of the sail going around can pull you out of balance.

Also, the first half of the gybe the board will be carving, but the second half of the gybe, the board will be much flatter to keep up the momentum for the planing gybe. Once you get your feet swithched around, then you can complete the carve/gybe.

I hope this helps, others may have some additional suggestions.

[mat-ty]

forget about it

[mat-ty]

forget about it. the sails way to big and hard to keep out of the water which will kill any jibe. But I guess someone could pull it off.

[techno900]

mat-ty,

Once proficient in formula sailing, one very rarely drops a sail, so uphauling rarely happens. However, I do use "easy-up-hauls" to make it easy should I decide to rest and drop the sail.

Many formula racers with the huge sails don't use uphauls, they disturb the flow of air over the sail. If they ever do drop their sail, they are out of the race anyway. They then either muscle the mast up and out, or water start.

When I race formula, I take my uphaul. The disturbed air flow over my sail doesn't have much to do with my performance.

[mat-ty]

I am talking about keeping your sail from dragging in the water through the turn, not easy with a jumbo sail. I got rid of my easy uphauls when I noticed I was getting nasty dings in my board from the buckle thing getting pinched against the top of the board by the mast when down.

[isobars]

[techno900]

mat-ty,

With the boom high and the short formula boards, the buckle normally won't hit the board since it's just below the boom head. However, I did punch a hole in the deck of my formula board when a knot in the uphaul got pinched between the mast and the board. Of course, this could happen on any board with an uphaul.

[lrrry]

[isobars]