Starboard GO - 2nd attempt report
Will Vasquez
sailed last week in Baja (La Ventana).
After not being able to sail a shortboard one afternoon, I decided to
try out the GO sitting at Ventana Windsurf Place's rack. Steve W. had a
nice long pointer fin on it so I thought "if it picks up, this could be
fun to try out..."
So I hooked up a 7.4M Simmer Zero-Seven (no camber slalom sail) and went
out for a cruise - it was nice because I had my polarized Ultrasol
sunglasses I purchased from Wardog at Surfingsports.com - so I was able
to see thru the water down to the bottom in many areas as I puttered
upwind....it was fun for a while...
I sailed the GO underpowered upwind to the campground and visited with
Wardog, Debdog and Margaret & Olaf - hung out a while and decided to
cruise back down wind to my launch. As I made it there the wind picked
up and I went back out.
I ended up being one of the only persons on the water that afternoon for
an hour or so it seemed like I had the whole bay to myself.
I figured out once again after playing with mastrack position and boom
height - how to make that GO get up and GO! It was a slower, more
deliberate process but once up on a plane and in the back footstraps the
board did not want to come off a plane!
I sailed upwind, downwind, across the wind and WAY OUT THERE IN THE
WIND...I really felt like I could sail for miles and miles with that
setup.
Overall I think it's a great design for sailors who want to just have
fun sailing around and for learning freestyle tricks..besides of course
being able to get someone else "hooked in" to our great sport.
QUESTION FOR YOU WIDE-BOARD SAILORS:
I felt like I could not stand up as tall as I wanted or hike out away
from the board enough - stand way off the rear straps toward the tail of
the board... I felt like I could not dominate the board well enough - as
I came up onto a plane I had to squat more than normal and stay
"scrunched up" more than was comfortable.
I was thinking it was because the harness lines were too short...as I
tried moving the mastrack way forward and way back - ended up with it
more forward of center.
Also, the straps kept twisting and choking my circulation in my feet -
what's up with that? Any of you guys/gals have similar problems?
Any tips on tuning the rig? I'm seriously thinking about buying one of
these types of boards.... thanks!
Jack (Sarasota)
Keep in mind that I am rather new to wide boards myself.
Guess what TOW will fix some of the problems. I almost gave my F175
back after my first couple of sessions. You are right you don't
"dominate" a wide board, you work with it. There is too much lift
from the fin and lateral stability from the width to foot steer with
just ankle pressure.
It will never be a slashy board. I noticed this coming from an
Equipe, so I can imagine the effect is extreme for a wave sailor! You
can carve some seriously quick jibes or tacks, but these require big
changes in body position and mast position. Its more like doing steep
turns in an airplane than slashing. My board and I are having more
fun each time we go out. Thursday after work was a great session here
with air temp in the mid 70s, sunshine and mid-teen winds. I found
out that the easiest way to plane all the way through a jibe is to
really take it easy with more sail steering and less foot (read whole
body) steering. Easier yet if do this while riding a wave (wake).
I think you could not get comfortable 1) because the sensation is
different 2) your sail was too small.
I tried using my 7.0 North IQ for mid-teen winds and while I could go
fast on a reach, the geometry was wrong. On a wide board a 7.7 is for
25 mph! A big guy like you can probably hold down a 10.4 in 20 mph
without any real difficulty.
If I get overpowered I just get off the beam reach (which as a Course
Racer, is really just a point of sail for drag racing non-course
racers, or fun if there is not enough wind to plane on a beat or broad
reach).
Formula sailors seem to like short lines for beating, and long harness
lines for broad reaching. I would guess the GO, which is happier beam
reaching than a Formula board would like something in between. Oh
yeah, booms should be pretty high, to help get weight off the rail,
and give you some leverage for the big sails.
Jack (Sarasota)
"Will Vasquez" <wi...@biofolic.com> wrote in message
news:3C52E6E9...@biofolic.com...
Charles Ivey
Welcome to the world of GOing. The GO, in my opinion, has the most under
appreciated performance potential of any board I know (well, maybe the Start
too.) I still ride the GO a bit and it will always be a favorite for super
fast reaching when most boards cannot plane -- but, a 7.4 will not do it for
you. The body position to really drive a wide board is Waaay out over the
water with locked legs. So, get that boom higher, get the lines longer, get
a sail bigger than you think you would ever want and use that leverage to
push the crap out of the board. Riding upright or with bent knees is a slow
position compared to driving the board from the side down into the fin.
When you do that, the shift in gear is amazing. The ride gets much smoother
still, and you can foot steer with a little body help. When you are really
flying, you just lean your lead shoulder a little forward, point your toes
and you will accelerate off the wind -- easy to control. Jack has it right
again about steering -- you move your body forward and aft a lot. When
really driving hard, there is more weight on the back foot -- you just stand
on it and lean out and back. The foot straps you had needed adjusting
apparently, because mine are no problem. You (as I seem to remember) are a
bit heavier, so the key to really blasting is to have enough sail to hang
your weight off the board and to the side even more so. Once you get into
the mode of bigger sail and fin sailing, then time on the water will lead
someone with your experience and skill to figure out the little tweaks. One
thing I think you might have wrong is the mast foot position -- for me I
keep it well back until control due to high wind and chop is a real problem,
and I then need to keep the nose down. With a huge sail and wide board
sailing position, the GO needs the mast foot back in nominal wind.
Remember, compared to a classical board, you do not want any weight forward.
What you want is to ride the board on about the last foot of tail -- that's
the way the rocker is designed. You did not mention where the footstraps
were placed, but with more time on the board, you want them as far back and
out as possible.
Just remember the wide board paradox -- it is harder to ride slower than
full out. pushing the board up on its fin. This is a barrier that must be
crossed once you have really big sails on a wide board. It seems more
inboard (maybe in the chicken strap) might be safer in chop, but it is just
the opposite. Once you start flying way out to the side, chop does not
disappear, but it becomes much less a problem, and your speed compounds into
another phase.
I like Jack's description of jibing -- like turning an airplane in a steep
turn. A little turn does not do it -- you need to roll into the turn with
weight waaay over to the other side and lift the front foot (still in the
strap) while staying low and hanging down with the weight still on the boom.
Do not come forward, just stay back there and bank that baby over.
The GO is as fast as most any board when fully powered up and on the fin.
When it gets too hairy for my Formula boards, I get the GO/FS out and just
keep GOing. I think you would enjoy having one and I'm sure you will get
much more time on the water. I love sailing with a 10.4 in winds that
cannot produce a white cap anywhere in sight, yet can power me to a plane
upwind, reaching, and even more downwind than one might think.
CI
"Will Vasquez" <wi...@biofolic.com> wrote in message
news:3C52E6E9...@biofolic.com...
jfe...@ix.netcom.com
>
> QUESTION FOR YOU WIDE-BOARD SAILORS:
>
> I felt like I could not stand up as tall as I wanted or hike out away
> from the board enough - stand way off the rear straps toward the tail of
> the board... I felt like I could not dominate the board well enough - as
> I came up onto a plane I had to squat more than normal and stay
> "scrunched up" more than was comfortable.
>
when sailing wide boards you need the boom much higher than for narrower
boards.
jeff
Graff J431
at: hand on boom, lines to the elbow Plus one inch or so. Should be enough to
get you to lock your legs, get you out and away more to control the bigger
sail.
Dave
Will Vasquez
guys know once I get one...
Good winds to you all.
-Will-
Will Vasquez
guys know once I get one...
Good winds to you all.
-Will-
Ellen Faller
Maybe Wardog can procure some of these for you.
Ellen
PassingWind
> boards.
Everybody has said you need to keep the boom much higher. How high is
everybody talking about?
sailquik (Roger Jackson)
cutout, and
most of them are fairly tall guys.
I would say nose to forehead height (when standing on the deck holding the
boom horizontal) isn't too high, but on boards like the GO and Free formulas
(90 cm or less wide) it should be high, but not as high as on a full 100 cm
wide
Formula board.
Also, sail size is part of this equation, as is footstrap offset.
Check out Rob Hartman's "Winning Formula" video's.
You will see a somewhat different setup when he's on a Techno, from when he's
on the wider Bic FV1.3 (?) but even the Bic isn't really as wide as many other
Formula boards.
Pay attention to Rob's "control triangle" in the video and see how he makes it
as
large as possible for upwind and reaching, and then stands up more and uses
longer lines for off the wind. You can use on the fly adjustable lines, or
use the
type with 2 loops, one for upwind and reaching, and a longer set for off the
wind.
It's really a personal preference thing, but make your individual "control
triangle"
as large as possible, and sailing upwind, on the fin, at very high angles,
with astonishing speed, on a sail so big you we sure they would never make
something that big (or that you could never handle a rig that big) and you
will
simply be amazed at how comfortable, smooth and balanced the whole package
feels, over a very wide range of wind conditions. The adjustable outhaul is
mandatory here to maintain that balance as the wind increases and lulls.
Hope this helps,
Roger
Dan Weiss
my booms way overhead, at the top of the cutout, and my choice has to do
with control upwind. Using an AHD 95 I found it necessary to set the
mastbase very far forward in the track to keep the nose down when powered
upwind. That mean raising the boom height not just to maintain proper sweep
angle but to moderate the amount of mastbase pressure when underway. I
found that I can now use a really big sail in a decent breeze (say, 9.8 over
20 knots with ease) and have controllable power upwind and lots of speed
downwind. Stuffing the nose is almost impossible downwind in this setup and
I can feel the fin flex and drive like never before when going upwind. Tons
of downhaul and lots of outhaul when in a big breeze, it's an entirely cool
feeling and pretty quick in the turns, too. Tacking is a bit more
challenging and requires greater precision since I must reach up so high,
but when it's right . . . oh boy.
Experiment a lot with boom height and follow Roger's advice on adjustable
outhaul and harness lines. Find your sweet spot and figure out a way to
expand it.
--
Dan
"sailquik (Roger Jackson)" <sail...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3C56E3BA...@mindspring.com...