G'day all, I'm very new to sailboarding and am having trouble rigging my sail. The problem is that the sail twists when I put it in the luff pocket, which i can't seem to avoid, which ends up twisting the boom cut out .The battens also stay on one side of the mast when i tack/gybe. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The mast and sail should match as I bought them from a windsurfing shop.
Mr Stumpo, It sounds like you need more downhaul. When you loop the line through the pulleys at the bottom of the mast (mastbase) you need to pull it down hard enough to 'release' the top of the sail. There's a few good websites that discuss this...it can depend on your sail, but if the battens aren't popping, you need more camber in your mast, which is produced by more downward tension.
www.guycribb.com/userfiles/documents/Downhaul%20and%20Outhaul.pdfhttp://www.capesport.co.za/tips_faq/windsurfing/windsurf_sail_rigging_downhaul.pdf
Hello Stumpo, welcome to the sport. Definetly sounds like not enough downhaul. When I first started, I saw a bloke sitting on the ground, both feet on the mast base and pulling on the down haul rope like his life depended on it. At the time I thought he was mad and now, guess what, I'm sitting on the ground, both feet on the mast base and pulling on the down haul rope. I have put too much down haul on at times but it is more likely that a sailer won't have enough.
