Sail size for HiFly 355 Fun

Question
Hi Windlover,

From digging through some old HiFly brochures I found online, I am thinking that my board may be a HiFly 355 Fun board.

The length on the brochure is slightly off, but the width seems right and more importantly the tail of the board is sort of notched at the sides and only that model has that.

The brochure is here:
http://hitthewave.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hifly-boards-1985-a.jpg

Anyway, in a related page, they have sail information based on the sailors size and experience.

You can see that here:

http://hitthewave.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hifly-boards-1985-back-cover.jpg

When I look at the part of the chart for body weight over 173 lbs ( I am about 240-245 ) I see entries for the 355 Fun as being F1 (for recreational sailors) and then some other entries for the more experienced sailors.  Note that the "F1" is an entry from the HiFly Rig sail type chart at the bottom of the page.

When I read the chart, it almost makes sense except for the references to the "rig".  The chart shows options for "to 4 Bft", "from 3-5 ft" and "over 5 Bft".

What are these numbers describing and how to they relate here?


Finally I have ran across some posts where people suggest that one of the best things I could do for the old board is update to a more modern sail.

If you recall, I have an old original Windsurfer brand sail as shown here:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/821/sail2w.jpg/


What are your thoughts on that and what should I be looking for (especially given my weight)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Charles

Answer
Hey Charles,

The older sails that Hi-Fly offered back then were nothing like todays' sails. They were also limited on sizes available, 4.0-6.5m2. The design of the sails were similar to your old Windsurfer sail. On the chart, the Bft is short for Beaufort scale, similar to kts is for Knots. Beaufort is a scale for wind speed. It is very old school and not used too much. Knots and MPH are more common today. If you look at the Bft and then to the left at the letter/number designations, they relate to a sail type and size at the bottom left of the chart.

As for what size/type of sail to get for you, I would recommend starting with something around a 5.0-5.5. Fairly easy for you to uphaul and small enough to get you through the beginner stages. Then you could go up to about a 9.0 with that board and your size. When you start adding sails, the lower end should be about 1-1.5m2 between sizes 5.0-7.0, then 1.5-2.0 above 7.0. (for example, my sails are 3.4, 3.9, 4.5, 5.3, 6.0, 7.0, & 9.0).

The thing to be aware of when buying another sail is the size of your mast. Measure your mast and convert that measurement to centimeters as all sails, booms, & masts are in metric sizes. Boom & masts are always in cm and sails are in m2. From what we have already discussed, your mast should work on the smaller range but going to a larger sail you may need an extension. The other key factor is the MCS or stiffness of your mast. Being an older mast it is likely to be fairly stiff. It's possible, but unlikely, that there may still be some information on the mast. It would be at the bottom. The reason for matching the right stiffness to a sail is so that the sail rigs properly. Too soft a mast for a sail wanting a stiff mast will result in a sail that won't work properly.

To find used sails, search on ebay and craigslist using windsurf, windsurfer, & windsurfing. Use these words separately. On ebay, add sail to filter out the massive amount of misc. stuff that comes up.

Hope this helps.
Keep on sailing,
Windlover