Sunday, November 22, 2009

Da Da Da (Downhaul Right!)

I have been windsurfing for 30 year now, and I just discovered the right way to thread the downhaul line, after doing it wrong for many years... To my defense, I learned rigging at the time of the original windsurfer, before we had all these fancy pulleys - but I had pulleys in the sail and the mast extension for more than 10 year, and always threaded the line wrong, until I stumbled on this great instruction video on the "Lost in Hatteras" blog.

Funny how much easier downhauling is if the lines are not twisted. Maybe now I have a chance to downhaul my NP V8 8.5 m sail somewhere close to the specs; so far, I've never been able to get closer than 3 inches without snapping lines.

Thanks for the video, Andy (McKinney, not Brandt, for a change), and for teaching me a little humility :)