TIP of the MONTH
Your whole performance, right from getting into the straps to doing
hooked in jumps and loops, will be transformed by sorting out your
boom height and line length.

HIGH AND LONG! A high boom and long lines ARE the way to go.
The all encompassing harness line advice is: 'it's a highlly
personal thing so just keep experimenting with height, length and
position until you find what's comfortable." Well it's not wrong but
neither is it that useful. Persevere with any set-up long enough and
it will eventually feel normal, even comfortable.

Of course there will be always be room for individual preference
depending on body shape and the sailing discipline but if you look
at the stars across the range of disciplines, ALL of them, both men
and women, favour the HIGH boom, LONG line combination.

Starting point

'High' and 'long' don't mean anything unless you have something to
compare them with. The following are a good allround starting point.

Boom - around shoulder height or just under.

Line - long enough so that with your elbow in the loop, the boom
reaches the top of your wrist.

The attraction of a low boom to some is that it puts them in a low
crouching, defensive position which feels safe - especially if
they've suffered a few hooked-in catapults. It is, however, a false
sense of security. By contrast the advantages of a high boom are
almost too many to list.

It feels high as you stand in front of the straps but as you step
back and angle the rig back, the boom effectively lowers leaving you
in a comfortable position with the arms parallel to the water. A
high boom makes you WANT to step back into the straps!
It makes you hang off the boom as you accelerate, so you unweight
the feet and plane earlier.
It leaves you in a more upright stance with the hips closer to the
centre-line, the best position from which to drive the board with
the feet and drop into spontaneous moves.
And these are the main advantages of longer lines:

You have more room to move the hips and therefore handle the power
and trim the sail hooked in.
It's much easier to pump the sail hooked in.
You have far more control during hooked-in manoeuvres. Especially in
jumps, you can hang right away from the rig, drop a hand, do your
thing without feeling so vulnerable.
Times to adjust

Across the disciplines and general sailng modes, these are the
occasions when you might go higher/lower or shorter/longer.

Big Kit. Using the outboard straps on a wide Formula style board,
you naturally pull the rig over to windward as you sheet in - that
makes the boom feel lower so put it up a couple of inches to
compensate. In general a high boom gives you the extra leverage to
hold down giant rigs.

Slalom. Many sailors would use lines about 2 inches shorter for
slalom that they would for waves. In slalom on speedy kit, you're
sailing fast relative to the wind. The sail is therefore sheeted
right in over the centre-line on all points of sailing. Shortening
the line allows you sheet in AND stay upright.

Speed. In true speed sailing where you're sailing hugely broad
massivley over-powered, many specialists favour a very high boom
(eye height in some cases) and very long lines just so they can hold
the sail right forward and distance themselves from the rig.

Waves and Freestyle. Because early planing and then comfort during
hooked in manoeuvres are more important than top speed and comfort
in a straight ine, this is where you'll see the high boom and long
line extremes. Freestyle champ Ricardo Campello, for example, uses a
head high boom and 32 inch lines (with his elbow in the loop the
boom would reach his outstretched finger tips!).

To conclude: don't go crazy to start with. Whenever you make a set-
up change, do it gradually an inch at a time otherwise it will just
feel too alien. The truth is that unless you're competing, you will
hit on a boom and line set-up that suits your shape and style and
use it for all occasions.