how many of you will move your mast (sail) forward or back as you change sail size?
ex: saling a 6.0m sail and mast base is 3/4 forward in track. then you sail a 4.0m , do you leave the base same position ? move back ...or more forward ?
how about sailing a particular size sail....and wind increases...and your too lay to re-rig a smaller sail. would you move the mast then ?
or are you a "set it....and forget" 
I used to move mine around a bit...but have been leaving it in same position lately regardless of sail size. my quiver is 5.6, 4.8, 4.0m
I guess you're talking free ride foiling, but with the bigger race sails, yeah I have a couple of positions marked up for each size, and might move them a millimetre one way or the other from that position depending on what the wind looks like. It's quite a noticeable difference with an 8 or 9m sail, like the difference of being able to take off or not.
My sail is usually in the same spot. I sometimes move the sail back 20-50mm when I get down to 4.0 or smaller.
I ride strapless and so I can just move my feet to balance pitch. I view the sails location more about placing the center of effort of the sail relative to front wing for steering/helm balance rather than for pitch control.
Smaller sail = shorter boom = move it back to keep the same helm balance.
How far in front of your front foot do you position the mast base? I ride strapless too.
Select to expand quoteutcminusfour said..
My sail is usually in the same spot. I sometimes move the sail back 20-50mm when I get down to 4.0 or smaller.
I ride strapless and so I can just move my feet to balance pitch. I view the sails location more about placing the center of effort of the sail relative to front wing for steering/helm balance rather than for pitch control.
Smaller sail = shorter boom = move it back to keep the same helm balance.
I always thought ...smaller sail...less weight. so I would move (a bit)mast forward. and aft for larger heavier sails/rigs.
I used to move my base fore and aft for different sail sizes. This was an old habit from formula racing days, when it was necessary.
Now, however, I find I can keep it in one spot for 2.8 to 7.0, no problem.
Kind of depends on the sail for me. My largest 5.3 wave sail I move a couple inches further back. Too far forward and the mbp in the gusts drives the nose down and back up as the sail inflates/deflates. I get in this porpoise loop over compensating to maintain pitch. I'm riding front straps only.
Select to expand quoteBullroarerTook said..
How far in front of your front foot do you position the mast base? I ride strapless too.
My sail is about 64cm (25.3") forward of the front of the foil mast. My front foot is all over the place! When its light and I am on a big foil (balz 999) pumping my big sail (5.3) to get flying my front foot might be 29 cm or more aft of the base. When I am flagged flying down the line on a wave on with a small lifty front wing (balz 799) I have felt the mast base under my toes!
Select to expand quoteskyking1231 said..utcminusfour said..
My sail is usually in the same spot. I sometimes move the sail back 20-50mm when I get down to 4.0 or smaller.
I ride strapless and so I can just move my feet to balance pitch. I view the sails location more about placing the center of effort of the sail relative to front wing for steering/helm balance rather than for pitch control.
Smaller sail = shorter boom = move it back to keep the same helm balance.
I always thought ...smaller sail...less weight. so I would move (a bit)mast forward. and aft for larger heavier sails/rigs.
The pitching moment (moment = force x distance) changes created by the difference in weight between a 5.3 and 4.0 are small relative to the mast base pressure. Especially when you shorten the lever and ride with the sail very close to the foil as I have been doing. The other way I look at where to put the sail is in relation to the board's center of bouyancy. If you move the sail to far forward on a minimal volume board, you can't uphaul as easy. So, I tend to set the sail close to the CB to ease uphauling then move the plate mounted foil aft to my normal sail to foil mast dims (roughly 25").
Select to expand quotesegler said..
I used to move my base fore and aft for different sail sizes. This was an old habit from formula racing days, when it was necessary.
Now, however, I find I can keep it in one spot for 2.8 to 7.0, no problem.
Woah! That is a big range without a mast base location adjustment!
I think it's really dependent on what your setup is.
On my freeride setups (Was mostly on a foilx 145 now mostly on a freestyle 115), I have the foil mast pretty far forward and the straps far forward, and bring the mast base for the sail pretty far back so that it is close to my front foot. I tweak it every now and then but I mostly feel it make the board less or more reactive to sheeting. It's already pretty far back so it's fairly neutral to sail input already. That's for 4.4 up to 7.0. And I have yet to use a stab shim on that setup.
On my iqfoil, the mast track is much further forward and so it is much more sensitive to sail input, especially the big 9.0 4 cam, and slightly less so if I use a 6.0-8.0 foilglide 3 cam. I tweak the mast base position depending on foil fuse and stab angle. If it's very light I bring the mast base back with the 9.0 and biggest tail shim as it makes a big difference on getting foiling and upwind angles. If it gets windier I push the mast base forward. If I have a slalom fuse instead of a long fuse I move the base back and downsize the sail if it's windy, and tweak the position some if it doesn't feel right.
You can also get some of the affect by raising and lowering the boom (for more or less power) if you are too far out to tweak the base, but it's not as effective.
Select to expand quoteutcminusfour said..BullroarerTook said..
How far in front of your front foot do you position the mast base? I ride strapless too.
My sail is about 64cm (25.3") forward of the front of the foil mast. My front foot is all over the place! When it's light and I am on a big foil (balz 999) pumping my big sail (5.3) to get flying my front foot might be 29 cm or more aft of the base. When I am flagged flying down the line on a wave on with a small lifty front wing (balz 799) I have felt the mast base under my toes!
I'm riding a Fanatic Stingray LTD 115. My m2m distance is 35" right now, though I've run it at 33". Any closer and it gets too squirrelly for me. When riding our small bay waves my front foot is 10~20 cm aft of the sail base. This is typically 3.4 or 4.0 conditions, 1150 cm2 foil and 80kg rider.
Since you are on SAB I know that your foil placement is closer to the mast than mine. The Fanatic fuse pushes the foil more than 10 cm further forward. (thedoor and I have compared.) So that's part of the difference.
Cheers.
As a bit of an experiment today ran my UJ 4cm forward of usual 15cm from front straps in 15-18 knots with 4.0 sail and WO940. What a disaster!! Being too pitch stable,felt I couldn't react quickly enough to negotiate the 1 metre short period wind swell. Downwind carves were way too back foot oriented. Gybing was just horrible, couldn't whip around in turns as usual. Board would straitened at the sail flip.
Moved it back and gybes and rides came easy again
A couple things about that. First, I think the main difference is you using foot straps. When I sail without, if I have most of my weight on my front foot and I hit turbulence, I get launched. Back when I was using foot straps I could hook my back foot to prevent it, but not so now.
Second, when I was in Baja the winter before last I got a good look at Greg Glazier's setup. He's fairly decent. ;) He has at least 30 cm between his front strap and his sail mast base. Of course he also uses a 125cm foil mast and pretty much keeps the power on all the time. A different style than I can pull off for sure. I would say Gwarn sails similar to this.
Different strokes.
