Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum as of today and suspect I will be spending some considerable time on here.

Currently I am in Spain about 20 mins walk from the Mar Menor and a nice litle sailing school.
I have done a 10 hour course on windsurfing and over the last 2 years managed to get about 30 hours on the board.

I used a harness for the first time the other day which I got on quite well with but to date I have been elluded by the wonder of planing.

I am 5.8" weigh about 82kg and typically go out with a 5M sale and a 166Lt board. The wind speed seems to be a fairly consistent 10knots which is what I am expecting today.

I will definitely go out with smaller board today as I don't have too much trouble Tacking or jibing and was thinkning of going up to a 7m sale with it.

I have been out in roughly 20knot winds with a 5m sale, can't remember the board size but I still could not get into the plane and the ammount of force going through my front leg was crazy.

I have since tried lightening my load on my rear foot and staying off the heels.

I have done a search here for tips and one which I thought might be relevnat in these lighter conditions is going downwind for a bit so as to build up some speed and get the plane going.

None the less I am determined to go out there and get into a plane today so any advice anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

the key is MFP - Mast Foot Pressure, i.e. pressure through the rig not your feet
By using a harness your weight is directed down through the rig to the mast foot and keeps the board flatter, helping it to plane.
At 82kg 20 knots of wind should see you planing with a 5m sail - assuming 5m sail is well rigged modern sail & board is also fairly modern, light and you have a reasonable size fin?
yes point more downwind (not too far!) to get planing earlier.

Thanks Bert,

Had quite a good afternoon on the water although there really wasn't enough wind.

Dropped my board size to 155L which felt really good, a lot less drag and used a 7M sale with harness.

Managed to get into a plane for a split second but the wind just wasn't there to hold it.

Thanks again for the tip.