Guide to Formula windsurfing

The Beginner's Guide to Formula Windsurfing

Sailing a Formula should not be heavier or more difficult than sailing any other type of windsurfing board, of course the sail is heavier to carry down to the water and to pull up, but then it is just a matter of balancing the forces. The reason why it is not heavier to sail a Formula with an 11 sq m sail than a freeride board with a 7 sq m sail is that the Formula is so much wider and it gives you and your body weight so much more leverage over the rig. With the right balance in the trim, you do not have to struggle and use a lot of muscle strength. With the right balance in the trim, you do not have to struggle and use a lot of muscle strength. If you then have the right technique, only the large muscle groups work, i.e. the legs. Sailing becomes easy, fun and as a bonus, even faster! Do you feel like you are not quite there yet? Then this guide might be something for you! I assume that you can already windsurfing at such a level that you are confident standing in the foot straps and gliding hooked into the harness.

The hardware and basic trim
Formula is made for racing and therefore only the "worst" material is used, which includes relatively large sails with many cambers, carbon fiber masts and carbon fiber booms. However, you don't have to compete at all just because you get a Formula and its accessories, but to get a successful result and be able to utilize the Formula's fine light wind properties and large wind range, it is a cambered race model sail that you should use. If you are new to this with Formula, it may be easier to choose a slightly smaller sail size. My recommendation is about 10-11 sq m if you have a body weight of 70-90 kg.
Below I will go through the different components of the equipment and explain how they should be trimmed. Pay special attention to the sail trim as it is one of the most important factors for a successful sailing trip.

The mast is the core of the rig. All racing sails are designed and sewn to a specific mast. Different masts have different lengths and also different stiffness, bending curve and flex. All manufacturers today use a relatively even bending curve, which is normally called a “Constant Curve”. The fact that the bending curve is even is a truth with a modification, because if you compare masts from different manufacturers, you will find that it differs a lot. Using a different mast than what the sail manufacturer specifies gives a bad result in nine cases out of ten. It can have all sorts of unwanted effects, but the usual thing is that the twist in the sail does not harmonize with the belly. That is, the top becomes too loose and the belly at the bottom too strong or vice versa. If the mast is too stiff, the sail will be too stiff, which inhibits the wind register, you will simply be over-rigged too quickly. If you are going to buy a used formula sail, make sure that the right mast is included, or that you already have the right mast!
Since today's formula sails have extremely large wind registers, you can easily manage with just one good rig of around 11 sq m. If you are going to compete at the highest level, you should have two, one around 12 sq m and one around 10 sq m.

Rigging and Downhaul is something that many people have problems with. The most common mistake in rigging a formula sail is that you pull too little downhaul. A prerequisite for being able to pull as much downhaul as is required is that you have an extender with good (large) blocks that allow you to thread the tack correctly, i.e. so that the lines do not cross and rub against each other or against the edges of the blocks or in the extender. The most common mistake in rigging a formula sail is that you pull too little downhaul. Cheap extenders usually have small and poor blocks and a design that makes it impossible to pull the tape effectively, and they also do not hold up to the heavy load that will be applied. So, get a proper extender and pull the tack correctly! At www.neilpryde.com and www.hotsailsmaui.se there are excellent guides that show how to pull the tack correctly. With the right extender and correctly pulled tack, you do not need cranks and the like to get enough downhaul. However, you have to clean and lubricate the blocks often on both the extender and the sail as sand and salt water cause it to quickly seize. It is not as complicated as it sounds, when rigging you just blow the sand off the blocks and the tack, thread it correctly and then spray on 5-56 or similar. I do this about every other rigging occasion. Pulling the tail down requires a bit of technique, if you do it wrong you risk getting a backache. Here is what I do: First I make sure to always have the starboard side of the sail facing up, this is because the cleat (the thing that locks the tack) is on this side of my extender. About 50cm from the cleat I make a loop with a stake, then I take my sling hook in the loop, straight arms, right leg bent towards the bottom of the extender, lean back so that I am lying with my back on the ground and then push off with my leg. This way there is no risk of hurting your back.
It is often stated on the sail how long the mast should be including the extension (luff) and how long the boom should be, these measurements are rarely accurate and sometimes they can be really misleading so do not rely on these measurements. If the sail is new, it will also stretch a centimeter or two. Furthermore, different sails are rigged in different ways, some should be threaded onto the mast with the cambers on, others you pop the cambers in after pulling a little downhaul. The manufacturer usually sends detailed guides on how to rig and what the sail should look like and what to look for to see that the downhaul is correctly tensioned. Alternatively, it is available on the manufacturer's website. Study these guides carefully and do not even try to rig your new formula sail without having read the instructions, it is guaranteed to go wrong, believe me! Once you know how to rig it, it takes no longer than rigging any simple freeride sail. If you have a used sail and can't find a guide for your particular sail, read a few others and you'll still get an idea of ​​how much downhaul you should have, or you can follow my simple guide below to get the downhaul pretty right.
To see that I have the right amount of downhaul, I usually look at how many battens “fall” when the sail is on the ground and you press the extension down against the ground so that the sail rests on the boom (the top and the entire back leech lift off the ground). When you do this, the outhaul should be taut, but only a few centimeters. Now you can clearly see how much the back leech twists. It becomes even clearer if you crouch down and look through the boom. At the beginning when the sail has barely any downhaul, it will not have any twist either, the rear straight part of all the battens will then be parallel to each other. When you then start to tension the downhaul so that the mast bends more, you will see how one by one the battens begin to fall downwards, starting from the topmost (first) one at the top. How many battens will fall depends on how many battens the sail has, but it is usually quite normal for a formula sail to have eight battens and then it is usually the case that the top four will fall when you have pulled enough downhaul. To then fine-tune the downhaul you have to sail and test your way, but be careful and never change more than a few centimetres at a time. The sail should feel light and stable in your hands when planing. In gusts of wind it should accelerate forward without becoming heavier to hold, i.e. the lateral forces should not increase significantly, if they do it is often a sign of too little downhaul. It helps if you have someone to sail against so that you can more easily detect the differences in height and speed when you change the downhaul. When you have found the right one, you should note how much downhaul you have and what the sail looks like when it is on the ground so that you can easily find your way back to this trim the next time you rig. Make sure not to have too much extension, the play between the blocks in the sail and the extension should be as small as possible (Gaastra and Mauisails have placed the blocks higher up in the sail so this does not apply there), this is to get the sail down as close to the board as possible so that you can more easily close the luff to the board. Note that on a formula sail you basically never change the downhaul once you have found the right one, regardless of how much or little the wind is. Many people think that it works better in light winds with less downhaul, but this does not apply to our large formula sails. They depend on the strong twist to function. Too little downhaul only slows down and increases the side forces, which impairs the ability to slide through wind holes. If you have problems pumping with a loose luff, you are using the wrong technique, more about that in the next section.

The outhaul is just as important on a formula sail as the downhaul is. However, the outhaul is something that is changed often and relatively much, unlike the downhaul. Therefore, an outhaul trim is almost a must so that you can easily and quickly adjust the outhaul on the water while sailing. An almost as common mistake as having too little downhaul is having too much outhaul. Formula sails (and slalom sails) with many cambers should never be rigged with a lot of outhaul. The sail has its correct shape from the start and the outhaul works more as a fixing point than as a stretching mechanism. When the sail is on the ground, it is usually enough to tighten the outhaul a couple of centimeters. Sails that are from about 10 sq m and up should have so little outhaul on a cross that it lies slightly against the boom (assuming the boom is not an extra wide model with a wide back piece). When the wind increases in the gales, the boom will give in a little (even if you have the best kind of carbon fiber boom) and then it will become a little shorter which leads to less outhaul and this is the opposite effect to what is desired. This is clearly visible in the form of the sail lying more against the boom. With the outhaul trim you can easily adjust this by pulling a little more (this is one of the reasons why you want to have such a stiff boom as possible and do not use aluminum booms on formula sails). In competition when you want to go as deep as possible on the downwind, you release the outhaul so much that the sail lies against the boom all the way to the suspension lines. In a border wind when it is difficult to get going, a little extra outhaul can make the rig respond better to pumping.

The slats you rarely need to adjust. If there are many small wrinkles around a batten pocket, tighten them so that they just disappear. Often there is a place where there is a slightly poor fit in the sail against the batten pocket where a larger wrinkle can occur, these cannot be removed so do not overtighten the battens! Also be careful with the batten tension in the top three battens. If you tighten these too tightly, they will bow by themselves (they should therefore be completely flat) and since there is no direct tension in the afterlee so high up in the sail, they will bow in the wrong direction during sailing. If you cannot remove the wrinkles on these battens without them bowing, tighten the batten just so that it does not bow and live with the remaining wrinkles!

The suspenders are very personal, there is no right or wrong here. Some prefer short, others long. Here you have to experiment. That is why adjustable sling lines are preferable so that you can easily test different lengths. Another advantage of adjustable sling lines is on the downwind side when you can advantageously extend the lines slightly so that you can sit a little more in the sling, which reduces the risk of pitching. Personally, I prefer relatively short lines on the jib, about 22” long as I find that it gives me a more upright stance and it also makes it easier to furl the sail to the maximum. The disadvantage of such short lines is that you are easily lifted up on your toes and then pitching is close. Also keep in mind that if you raise the boom, this also requires slightly longer sling lines and vice versa.
The placement of the lines also varies a bit with preference and taste, but in general it can be said that you should strive for as neutral a placement as possible so that you don't have to waste extra energy on sheeting or holding hard on the forehand (as a reference for how far back the lines are on a formula rig, I have about 85cm from the center of the boom measured on the outside of the boom tubes to the center between the lines, this of course varies slightly between different rigs). A common mistake is that you don't learn how the lines should sit and how it should feel with correctly placed suspender lines, so often experiment with moving the lines a couple of centimeters at a time and note the difference, you will be surprised at how easy it is to sail with perfectly placed suspender lines!
More specifically, however, the distance between the lines should be narrow, a maximum of a fist between them, as this provides better feel and stability in the rig.

The mast foot should be adjusted so that the sail closes the gap between the lower luff and the board. That is, the rig should lean (rake) so much back that the lower luff of the sail touches the board. When tacking, the sail should also be inset to the middle of the board. If the sail is slipping, move the mast foot forward so that you get more rake on the mast. If the situation is the opposite, that the lower luff of the sail folds towards the board, move the mast foot back. Adjust a maximum of a couple of centimeters at a time. The first few times when you have no idea where to put the mast foot, put it in the middle. As you get better, you will also notice that the mast foot has an impact on how the board behaves. The first few times when you have no idea where to put the mast foot, put it in the middle. But the primary thing is always to close the sail to the board! An example of this is when you start to get really over-rigged. Then the board tends to walk on the butt, so-called tailwalk, which is not particularly efficient or comfortable. At the same time, when there is so much pressure in the sail, you can no longer lower the lower deadweight towards the board. If you then move the mast foot forward, the lower deadweight will come down at the same time as the mast foot moved forward gives you greater leverage over the bow, which is then held down more easily. So, keep an eye on the lower deadweight!

Boom height should be adjusted so that the part of the boom where the suspension lines are located is at approximately chest height when you are sailing in planing, hooked into the harness and standing in the foot straps. That is, the arms should be horizontal from the body (the front arm will point slightly upwards and the back arm slightly downwards). The body should be straight without a sharp bend in the hip and the legs should be slightly bent to absorb waves. When not planing, the boom stroke will be somewhere at the height of the face. It is important to understand the relationship between boom height and the position of the mast foot. If the mast foot is moved forward, the rig will have more "rake" backwards (when planing) which results in a lower boom. If in this case you want to maintain the boom height that you had before moving the mast foot forward, you must therefore raise the boom on the mast. Boom height has a large effect on the pressure on the legs. Raising the boom will give more pressure on the back leg and vice versa. Lowering the boom about 5-10cm is therefore effective in strong winds as this puts more pressure on the front leg which in turn helps to hold the board down and counteracts tailwalk.

The foot straps position can make a big difference to the trim. Out of habit, many people move the foot straps to the back, believing that this is best and fastest. This is not true. You cannot sail fast if you are not in control. The primary thing is to stand comfortably and relaxed with the right balance, then speed will come automatically. If you are unsure at the beginning where to put them, put them in the middle!
On the cross, the rear foot strap is the primary one as more power goes through the rear leg. If you have a stance on the cross that means you are leaning heavily forward and it feels like the rear leg is not quite enough (straight rear leg, heavily bent front leg) then it is time to move the rear strap forward. If the situation is the opposite and you instead get the feeling that you have to lean backwards on the cross, then you should move the rear foot strap back.
The front foot strap primarily determines how wide you stand, adjust it so that you stand just right, as a standard this is usually about 55cm apart (measured from the center of the stops). Tall people usually prefer to stand a little wider while short people a little narrower. The front foot strap also has some function on the off-wind. If you move it forward you get better leverage against the board and thus reduce the risk of falling, move it back to get the nose up more which can give better float in choppy conditions.
The unique Formula center rear foot strap or "chickenstrap" as it is also called is very helpful in deep off-winds, especially in the beginning when you are new to Formula as it almost completely eliminates pitching. If you are more experienced and compete, you avoid it as long as possible as you can sail faster with your foot out in the regular back strap, the reason for this is that you can simply haul the sail in more. If the wind increases so that you are properly over-rigged, it is an indispensable aid even for the pros, again, no control, no speed!

The fin is not something that you can directly trim, if you want other properties you have to get another one. If you are going to compete or just have really good performance then make sure to get one that you know is good, the most proven fin on the market is without a doubt the Deboichet R13, a safe bet. It is available in a bunch of different stiffnesses and with different rakes but I am not going to go into that here, it is overpriced. If you are looking to compete there is really no need for a fin shorter than 70cm. So my advice is not to spend a lot of money on different fins, get a good fin and use it in all conditions for all sails. Take care of your fin, the finish is important, keep it free of scratches and nicks, especially on the front part of the blade as these can otherwise cause spinout.

Basic technology
Below I will go over the basic technique for sailing a Formula and to make sailing easy and efficient.

Pull the rig , forget about water starting on a Formula, if the long and wide mast pocket has filled with water, the only way to get the rig out of the water is to pull the rig. Most people who have tried to raise a sail of 10 sq m or larger think the same thing at first, namely that it is incredibly heavy, or almost impossible. Of course it is not! With a little technique, it is easy to raise the gigantic rig, it just takes a little longer than with a more normal rig. The usual stay-up rope doesn't work well on a Formula rig, at least not if it is attached down around the extension as it is designed to do. It will then be too short and give a crappy angle because the Formula rig has a slightly higher boom. This results in you having to stand bent over and it's not good for your back! Either you don't attach the stay-up rope around the extension or you use a regular strap as a stay-up rope (Biltema's blue straps are fantastic for this purpose). The advantage of the strap version is that it is so flexible that you can tuck it into the mast pocket after you have pulled up the rig and then it doesn't hang and throw and it also doesn't ruin the aerodynamics around the front edge of the sail like a regular staysail does, much worse! Cut off the metal buckle and tie it to the boom. It should be slightly longer than it is from the boom stroke down to the board. Now you have a good aerodynamic staysail that doesn't force you to stand double-weighted, and it is also relatively comfortable for your hands when you wrap it one turn around your hand. Unless the sail is on the right side from the wind, which it rarely is, unfortunately the easiest way to get it all right is to paddle around the board with one leg. When you are going to pull up the sail, you should stand with straight arms, slightly bent legs, a little back, and forward with your hips. Now you are guaranteed not to hurt your back. Then you just have to lean back and let your body weight do the work. It takes a little time because at least 20 liters of water must flow out of the mast pocket through the small hole at the top and down at the mast foot. Easy!

Pump technology is a bit of a tricky chapter, there is a lot to think about and everything should happen simultaneously. Training makes perfect! Your technique is directly decisive for how early you can plan. Start by sailing half-wind or slightly lower, if there are waves you should try to take advantage of these and pump yourself up into planing on the back of the wave without falling off too much. A Formula has a short rocker, this means that you have to stand very far back when you are going to pump, otherwise the board will get stuck. Place your front foot just inside the front foot strap, angled quite a bit forward. Place your back foot just in front of the rear foot strap and almost in the middle of the board, also slightly angled forward. It is extremely important that you keep the board flat sideways, you must not press down on the windward edge (the one you are standing on). Press with your toes and angle your ankles to keep the board flat. The actual pumping strokes are not, as many people think, about jerking the rig as hard as possible, it just leads to you jerking the wind out of the rig. Effective pumping is about catching the wind in a harmonious but powerful movement just like a bird does in its wing beats, watch a still image study of the wing movement and you will understand what I mean. Cast something in while pulling the rig strongly towards you and forward in an inward quarter circle shaped movement, this will generate a strong forward force in the rig which you compensate by simultaneously pushing away with your legs. The force from your legs should be as forward as possible so that you push the board in front of you up into planing without putting too much load on the fin laterally. At the end of the movement you cast out and move the rig outward/backward to the starting position. How fast you can do the movement depends on how quickly the wind fills the sail again after you have returned to the starting position, if the luff collapses you will make too hasty a return for that wind strength. The lighter the wind, the longer and more powerful the movement is needed, as you cannot make the return movement faster without the back leech collapsing, but you still need to get enough power to get you on a plane. Practice the rigging movement gently at first so that you get the technique down and then increase the intensity and power of the movement. Even if you make a small and gentle movement, you should feel a clear increase in forward power in the rig if you do it right. Keep an eye on the back leech so that it does not collapse, it is usually quite audible if it does. Effective pumping does not produce any rattling noise from the monofilm. When you master this technique, you will rarely need more than three to four pumps to get the board to pop into planing, provided there is enough wind for planing to be possible, because it is also possible to pump into planing when the wind is just so weak that it is not possible to maintain planing without continuing to pump, and then you can keep going indefinitely, very frustrating.

Cross
Being able to gain height is usually not a problem with a Formula, you just have to steer the bow up into the wind. But you can of course do it more or less comfortably and effectively. The most effective thing is to have the sail fully inserted to the middle of the board and to close the gap between the lower body and the board. At the same time, you should not tilt the rig too much above you, try pushing your forehand away from you and you will find extra power! The board should be angled slightly to leeward to get extra lift from the fin. Don't overdo it because then the wet surface increases which slows down, it's only a matter of a few degrees of angle. Don't push the last few degrees in height either, then you will lose too much speed which reduces the lift in the fin and you will get unnecessary drift.
You shouldn't have to take any special and strenuous position, it shouldn't hurt to sail upwind. You should stand just like on any other bow, with a straight body, straight arms and slightly bent legs that absorb waves. When you turn up on a tack, the forces from the sail travel backwards, they become more sideways, which means you have to compensate by coming forward on the board. You do this by leaning more forward. Many people make mistakes here. It is common to exaggerate the movement and turn your entire upper body forward and in the worst case, you completely extend your back leg and bend your front leg. The only thing that is really needed is a slight movement of the hip, the upper body should still be parallel to the boom, only the head should be turned forward. Everything else is just unnecessarily strenuous and doesn't help you get ahead faster. A straight back leg is really bad, partly because a straight leg can't absorb the sea and then it becomes bouncy and fluttery and you don't go fast at all. What's worse is that a straight back leg often leads to an excessively bent front leg. What happens then is that much of your body weight ends up on the front leg, the result is that you weigh down the windward edge. This has a number of negative effects and in light winds it can be especially devastating. The wet surface increases which slows down the speed, the fin loses lift both from the negative angle and from the reduction in speed, and then the angle makes the board start to lean into the wind and then you lose even more speed. A vicious circle that usually ends with you losing planing. This is usually due to poor trim such as the mast foot being too far back, the boom too high, the rear foot strap too low back or a combination of the above. It's about balancing the forces. When something feels wrong think about what is happening and why.

Deep blur
The basic stance is again the same. Here, unlike the cross, you have a lot of forward force in the rig that you have to compensate by coming back on the board, the front leg becomes slightly straighter and the back leg more bent. The board should be trimmed in the same way as on the cross, i.e. slightly to leeward. A large back strap means that you come in more with your foot so that you can push more with your toes which makes it easier to keep the right trim on the board. The sail will not be quite as hard in as on the cross and it will also not be possible to close the undersail to the board and that is not something you should strive for either, on the contrary try to keep the rig forward away from you and as upright as possible, try moving your forehand back and you will usually find a little extra power (however, the pitching will come closer). Do not go as deep as possible, especially not if there is a little sea. Then you risk getting stuck and losing the planing on the back of the waves. Always release the outhaul so that the sail lies against the boom approximately up to the suspension lines. This gives the sail better stability when going deep and reduces the risk of overshooting and losing control, especially when the wind increases and you start to get over-rigged. Then the chicken strap is also extremely effective and allows you to get the situation under control for a while longer. How long you can stay out in the back strap is just a matter of practice, but sooner or later everyone has to use the chicken strap. Extending the suspension lines is an effective way to stay out in the back strap for a while longer.

As a final word, I just want to say that Formula is a little different and it can take a while to get used to and find the right trim, you just have to give it some time. In return, you will be rewarded with many times more sailing hours and more speed and adrenaline (ok, slalom in gale force winds is faster but unfortunately gale force winds rarely blow in our windless country).

See you on the water this summer!

//Jimmy Hellberg SWE-1