Windsurfing Rigs

The rig everything other than the board - the sail, the mast, the boom, and all the bits that grab the wind and fling you along the top of the water. All the gear is easy to assemble these days, and you do not need to know how to tie a bowline or a sheepshank. The gear is also tough yet very lightweight, so anyone from a kid through to adult can handle them.

Sails - whilst there are hundreds of different designs and shapes in sales, there are three general styles - wave, race and free-ride sails. Each are designed to give you specific performance such as acceleration and deceleration, manoeuvrability and top end speed. Made of monofilm, windsurfing sail sizes go from 3.5 square metres to 12.5 square metres, depending on what you are doing and how big you are. If you are an adult who wants to sail in 50 knot winds, you don't want to go out with a sail that will send you to New Zealand!

Booms - are what you hang on to and use to control what the wind is making you do. Most booms these days come in different sizes, but are fully adjustable so that they can handle a whole range of sail sizes.

Masts - originally, masts were one long piece of fibreglass. Today, masts are predominantly two-piece, made of carbon composites - very tough yet light-weight - and come in various sizes and stiffnesses.

Universal joints - are the flexible base where the mast meets the board. As well as being very flexible to allow the rig to swivel and angle, universal joints need to be tough to handle the stresses and strains.

Mast base - joining the mast and the universal joint is the mast base, which is adjustable to allow different sail sizes on one mast.

Harness lines - allow a sailor to 'hook-in' to the rig, and allow the body to take the weight of the mast and leave the arms free for control. Harness lines are available in both fixed length and adjustable.