so today I got my first time with adj outhaul. 7.0m & 112 L slalom board. wind was so so... hit 34 mphish on my gps. anyway....I am not sure if I was using it enough.....or correctly. I was just doing reaches...out and back sort of thing. and I played with it in the beginning . and once the sail felt dialed in I left it alone. even when the wind backed off a bit...I left it alone. probably should have let it out a bit. I find easing the outhaul out is easy ...which makes sense... pulling it in...that was not too bad...but took a bit of effort. almost crashed doing it. Rig almost got away from me.
how often do you guys (and gals) use the outhaul for straight reaches in a somewhat steady wind??
I adjust when needed, aiming to keep the rig feeling balanced between hands, and sheeted at the right angle.
Less inclined to play with it in the middle of a race, but if you're a set and forget person, theres really not any point to having an adjustable outhaul. its just more stuff dangling off the boom, for no good reason.
You can pull up in the shallows and make adjustments if you need to. An adjustable outhaul is literally there so you can adjust it on the fly.
When you run down wind on a angle to achieve GPS speeds you tend to let the sail sit out a bit ,so not sheeted in like running up wind ,
so with the outhaul system it allows you to belly the sail out to catch the wind better and keep a full sail when running down wind on the big DW angles .
Its a handy tool to have ,and saves jumping off in deep water to adjust a heavy back handed sail which is uncomfortable to use .
Also very handy when the wind drops off ,let the sail out and you have that extra power in your sail to keep on the plane when others are not ,its a great add to your kit ,enjoy the discovery
My relatively inexperienced experience:
So far I've only used it on my 9.0 foil race sail. I feel a difference even with 1cm of movement. I've adjusted it on the foil while flying, and it does make a noticeable difference. I think I notice it more going upwind and with a tighter outhaul, as it makes the sail a bit easier to manage. I belly it out in lighter wind and I think it would make a bigger difference in downwind if I ever get the balls to send it over 22-23kts on the foil.
On a fin I don't have any experience but I would like to try it, I just need to setup my smaller boom for it, and have the right conditions, which will take some time. I've only recently had it in me to really go deeper and well powered in choppy stuff on a fin, and my speeds aren't anything special.
As someone who is more focused on the GPS disciplines, and in particular on speed sailing deep off the wind predominantly on starboard tack, and who rarely uses a sail larger than 6.4m, I settled on a much simpler, one sided setup that deletes a lot of extra complication. 99% of my sailing is on slalom boards and Cammed sails although I do find this setup useful during my rare surf sailing sessions as well.
Pro's:
- Very simple and easy to set up and rig/derig
- I don't need/use any clew pulley (apple core)
- no meters of chord or elastic chord all around the boom
- very easy to adjust when sailing (on that tack) or when I stop in the shallows.
Cons:
- I can only adjust on one tack (starboard) so I must remember to pull it in or release it before I Gybe. This is NOT the best setup for any kind of racing, especially course racing where you really need to be able to adjust on both tacks.
But I have to say that once I get setup for the conditions in a session (it usually only takes a the first few minutes to find the sweet spot), I rarely do much adjustment unless the conditions change, except when I am doing proper upwind/downwind speed runs. It can be very handy in a situation where you don't want to stop, or cant stop in shallow water. For instance, doing a 1hr run and the wind picks up or drops off.
Here is a pic showing my setup - not the clearest, but all I can find at this moment.