tips on upwind sailing

struggling getting upwind need advice i was out yesteday on a 6.2 sail and a 31cm fin going well but when starting to point up wind just i just seem to die

I have just got this worked out with a little help from my friends and was smoking upwind yesterday even with a weedie.
Move your hands back a little along the boom. Push hard with your back foot to apply fin pressure, hook up your toes on the front foot, & lean forward as if you are trying to look around the front of the mast. This directs your harness pressure into the hip opposite the back foot and allows you to apply more fin pressure because you have something to push against. Rake the sail back and sheet out a little, but keep your hands back unless you are overpowered.

If you can sail from peli-point to carpark in Lucky Bay Melville in 3 legs in a SW seabreeze you are a champion of upwind sailing.

Reach/upwind across to majestic pt,then across to yacht club,then few hundred metres short of carpark is best so far.

The modern wide,short design of boards with wider tail is way easier for pointing.

Rail the windward rail up,so wind is hitting underside of board.

Windward rail should not contact the water at all.

You do this by digging backfoot toes in/lifting heel,then you counter balance the increased lift by pushing bodyweight forward to nose of board.

Many think you sail upwind by digging windward rail in water.This technique is useless, unless you are not planning or sailing one-design,then it can work.

assuming you're not on race kit (31cm fin says no!)

raise your boom

lengthen your lines

hold the rig upright (don't rake it) - try to get boom end in front of uj

let all of your body weight hang down through the harness lines

get your head forward and level with the mast


if you're doing it right your knees should be sort of collapsed and you should be sailing on the sides of your feet (ie the outside of your front foot and the inside of your back foot)

Don't rake sail back. You're planing- it's not how you steer when planing..

If the sail is raked it produces less lift. Racers rake their sails but they sail over powered and their sails have low feet- meaning they don't actually go that far back.

This stuff all comes from guy cribb who also advises pressing windward rail slightly if you're on a waveboard because it keeps the board on the water....

Two points that seem to make a big difference-
Get up to a good speed to maximise the apparent wind- you really do get more power from it (check the recent experiments on going DIRECTLY DOWNWIND at twice windspeed, (and even directly upwind !)
Then concentrate on efficiency by keeping the board perfectly flat as you slowly twist forward and gently apply sideways fin pressure. Sheet the sail for maximum upwind speed rather than maximum harness pull, especially with a cammed sail. This is very important. Subulltee....

Word! It's horses for courses, you can't sail a freestyle board with a 16cm fin upwind in the same fashion as you do a slalom board...simply won't work; same applies to most wave boards, imo. In that case it's all about the windward rail and front foot pressure.