Personally I want to stay well clear of naming the sailors in the pictures that we analyse. Still, I remember Matt metioning that the Hess's has been on the Blade F16 before the Alter Cup itself. The same with the kids Luke L. and Caroline W. Matt claimed that these crews expressed the opinion that the boat felt significantly different from what it is supposed to feel.

I quote




Source : http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...umber=106441&page=0&vc=1

So in all fairness, the Hess's were not totally new to the boat and several other teams can be seen in the pictures (or in the background of them) to trim the rig in much the same manner.

I can only say that that is mostly definately not the way I run things on my own boat in a blow and neither do the other 3 F16 crews at my club (+Geert). Maybe Matt is correct and the Alter Cup settings did indeed necessitate sailing the boats like this. Either way they were not designed to be sailed this way in these winds.




Pull everything tight, release mast rotation, hoist spi, pick up speed gently with crew getting out on trap and moving to the rear of the skipper (hooking onto footstraps or the butt of the skipper) and then gently heat it up some more and steer, steer, steer. The combined weight just has to be on the rearbeam of slightly behind it, when flying a spi in a blow. When you sit next to one another on the luff hull then the weight is too much forward for a good blow. Remember moving the crew from sitting next to the sidestay to level with the rearbeam or just behind it is a difference of 70 kg over 1 mtr (3 feet) allowing 15 to 20 kg more saildrive at 3.75 up the mast (pressure point) before the bows go down and that is alot !


But, indeed, this is one of those boat specific trick one learns after a good number of hours on the boat and that simply can't happen in an event like the Alter Cup.

Wouter