In this edition of the winter training series we talk about tacking.
Personally I used to consider tacking too basic a manoeuvre to pay much attention to, I've been sailing xx years, surely I can tack OK by now... until I saw how much faster a pro-racer can tack compared to me!
A few important points I've learned: Land the board flat - avoid heavy railing
Maintain as much speed as possible (sounds obvious)
Helps keep the water flowing over the foil for early flight
Fast feet around the mast - less steps - land where you need to be
Pull the sail forward and place the hands where you need them to be
Don't pull the sail too far forward - or suffer the consequences....
New Front foot into the front straps asap.
After pulling the sail forwards on the new tack, squat down to sheet in
Head a little further down-wind than 45? to accelerate, increasing apparent wind flow, then point higher
I've also noticed that my FMX has a tendency to sink the nose if I don't have my front foot well behind the mast when pushing the nose off the wind on the new tack.
Because I'm a stupid noob, tacking fast on my foil board has progressed a lot (I have my foiling gybes, btw). I have learned that I can carve into the wind while still somewhat foiling/planing, once the board slows down, I jump to the otherside, throw the sail forward (even over sheet when somewhat on the front of the board when coming around), shuffle the feet to get the board to turn on a dime and immediately get speed for the take-off. I'll see if I can get footage on this.
I tear up watching movies with sad endings. (Sorry about your sail).
Nice video. I still take way too long to get around and a smaller nose isn't helping. I appreciate the inspiration to go out and work on them.
Yet another tack better than yours...
www.facebook.com/107073829315646/posts/3408070462549283/?vh=e&extid=TCyaH3d5LSFWhvvO
These planing tacks deserve a special mention.
I've now got a new life goal!!
www.facebook.com/groups/1377152212346239/permalink/4023425614385539/
Yeah super impressive, particularly the second one. The Olympic training will push this stuff to another level.
The world championships at silvaplana showed some amazing techniques. like this one.
fb.watch/7H5evpJMRL/
Impressive. Interesting footwork: the front foot does not step in front of the mast at the start, and the back foot stays well behind the mast while the front foot goes around the mast. So he limits pressure in front that would drop the nose down even with footwork as quick as his. I bet we'll see plenty of other racers copying this!
Yes, I would like to formally retract any statements I've made previously in other threads about round the mast foiling tacks not being physically possible. I severely underestimated the cat like agility of youth.
this lad is from Fremantle Sailing Club too. Well done Harry.
That is precisely what racing does for any sport.
Racing is always leading edge. We need it for equipment, technique, and performance. We all benefit from it.
Notice that in addition to the sail being really raked back it is also leaning to the inside of the turn. That is what keeping the board turning during the weight transfer.
Other races are already replicating it
Looks like the game changer was seeing the demo and the right technique
Great example of what racing does for us all.
By September dozens of windfoilers will be tacking on the wing. Maybe only dozens. It looks pretty hard.
Ive raced this guy and he wast fast enough in his tacks before he was fully foiling. Looks like i'm gonna lose 200 metres on him per tack now instead of the normal 100..
This has the edges smoothed off. Probably not his first. Perhaps it is the first that he posted now that someone else let the cat out. That's pure speculation on my part.
It looks like a fast VMG, there is not much bear away on the new tack.
www.facebook.com/AmadoVrieswijkNb20/videos/734234734601866
Paducah, That's Amado NB20 in that clip. He is not small or a teenager. He also looks really good at a move that was shown as a "first time ever" by somebody else just a few days ago.
I don't know for sure about Amado, but many top level freestylers are also extremely good at light wind freestyle on small boards. That's very good training for moving around the board without sinking the nose.
Amado's tack looks very smooth, so it's quite possible that he has done this for a while already. But on the other hand, he is the reigning freestyle world champion and a top level foiler. Compared to more advanced freestyle tricks, the foiled tack looks quite simple, so I would not be surprised of he learned how to do this in his first session after he saw the other movies.