kicker attachment

Originally posted by Medway Maniac Exactly, laser'713. Easy to try, Grumph. Just put a very long mainsheet on one windy day and let the sail right out and bring it in again a few times. You don't actually have to gybe to experience the effect.

You're thinking dinghy style... If you reason windsurf style the board gybes under the rig and the rig only comes back online once the board is planing on the new tack, so you don't let go the sheet so to speak, you actually sheet in going into the turn.

So, what would happen with a dinghy would be the difficulty sheeting into a bear off, then there being enough sea/water room for the boom to pass the initial phase of its travel without grounding down, that's the bit that is more concerning.

I think one big issue is that IMHO we are not really sheeting in after a gybe on a board, in effect. We tend to pivot the entire rig around a point about mid way down the boom as we sheet on, IMHO. We pull the mast a significant way to windward and then let the mast and luff fall away, using our back arm as the pivot point. Rather than pulling the back hand in while loaded to get the right sheeting angle, we are essentially letting the front hand out in order to get the right sheeting angle.  In boats we can't pull the whole rig into the turn in this way and therefore we don't have the option of gybing this way.

Edited by Chris 249 - 29 Oct 14 at 11:33am

Originally posted by iiitick Where is the problem powering up after a gybe?

Er getting the boat back up and getting yourself into it..