Triming & foots straps

Question
Hey There - the board I'm sailing is a 145L Jp and have 8.0 V6.
Am finding it difficult to steer the thing it keeps going up  into the wind am also struggling to get trimmed and pull the sail back.
THinking it might be caused by moving weight down the board when I'm starting to plain have just moved the foot straps to the learning settings i.e. in the middle rather than on the edges and further back. the mast is closer to the back of the mast track. Any suggestions... thanks in advance

Answer
Hey Adman,

For starters, you probably have the mast too far back for the conditions. This puts the weight of the sail/mast/boom farther back on the board and when you move your weight back, it causes the tail to sink more. With your weight on the windward side of the board, it tips the windward rail into the water more and causes the board to turn upwind.

When you are sailing any sail over about 6.5, you should have your mast more forward unless you are fully powered and planning at all times. When  you are semi powered and you have to work a bit to get planning, then you need to keep the nose of the board down to help distribute the weight evenly on the board. The way to do this is having the mast forward so that when you sheet in the sail for power, it drives the nose down just a bit and flattens the board. Remember that the sail/mast/boom is considered immovable ballast. It does move a bit but technically it stays in a fairly localized location on the board. You are movable ballast because you can shift your weight forward and back as needed to even out the weight distribution.

As you power up the sail by sheeting in and direct the board offwind to increase speed, you can slowly shift your weight back to harness the increased power. When getting into the footstraps, keep the sail sheeted in just a bit with your front arm extended. This causes the sail to pull the nose of the board offwind which counteracts the dipping of the windward rail in the water and helps keep the board from turning upwind. Another thing to work on is putting pressure on your back toes to help keep the board flat. This helps keep the windward rail out of the water.

When you are working on getting into the footstraps, bend your knees and hang your weight from the boom. This creates pressure on the mast/board connection and releases some of your weight from the board at the footstrap area. Shift your weight slightly to your back foot to allow you to slip your front foot into the strap. As the board speed increases, shift your weight slightly onto your front foot to slip your back foot in the rear strap. Now straighten both legs (leaving a slight bend to absorb chope) while sheeting in to power up the fin. As board speed increases, you can shift your weight further back on the board to counteract the pull on the sail.

Once you are comfortable getting on a plane and getting into the footstraps, move the footstraps to the next setting. You may go through a few challenges to adjust to the new setting but you will also be improving your board handling quicker and be working towards a more powerful and faster board. When the footstraps are closer to the center of the board, it creates a more upright stance which is good for wave sailing but doesn't equate well with going fast. The further out from the center of the board that you are, the more power you can get from the sail as your body is able to counteract more pull from the sail which results in more speed from the board.

Hope this helps.
Keep on sailing,
Windlover