I don't know what happened last year, I only know what I was told. Certainly you want all the boats to be set up the same, especially since they are being swapped after every race. I was told there was a problem with the jib hitting the spreaders. I've never heard of this on the Blade before and asked why Matt was not allowed to help tune the masts. I was told because he is a competitor that would be unfair. There is some logic there, but that is no reason to -not- use his advice when he is also the builder of the boat and has the most time on the boat. I can see where it would be implied that he had some sort of secret knowledge if he were allowed to tune them himself, and if he were winning every race. Would it have been done differently if he were not racing? If you are going to set all the masts the same, as they should be, why not do them all to settings that he knows will work? Or would that be considered unfair?
I would think you would want to get the most out of the boat and the more complex the boat/mast is, the more mast settings matter. Or why not just do the Alter Cup on Waves if you are worried that some class expert is going to have an unfair advantage?
So next year, are you going to -not- use -known- settings on the Capricorn masts? If the US Importer comes to the event and says, "You should do it like this..." are you going to throw that information out and use something else, because he is a competitor in the event?
And I'm not trying to diss anyone, I know it's a huge amount of time and effort to get all the boats set up, I was just surprised that the builder was not allowed to help out more. I would think you would want his help, since he is responsible for the boats well being. And any problems that arise are going to reflect on him and his product.
Maybe in the future, the builders (or importers) shouldn't be allowed to race, that way they can tune the boats for maximum performance and not have to worry about anyone thinking they have an unfair advantage.
All I am trying to say here is maybe the jibs wouldn't have had holes poked in them if they used Matt's settings.
There is a range of settings on every boat for any given weight range and wind range. We worked hard to hit the middle of that range based on polling different people and my experience. I made the decisions on where to set the spreader rake - which is a setting that I change on all of my boats for different weights I may sail at. The spreader rake for a 240 lb team is not going to be the same ideal spreader rake for a 310 lb team - I tried to hit the middle.
Same goes for mast rake. As far as the feel of the boat goes - if there was a setting that negatively affected it, it was probably largely due to mast rake. We had the masts standing up quite a bit because we did not anticipate 16 to 20 knots of breeze for the majority of the week.
There was no way possible to take Matt's settings and use them universally on the fleet - weight ranges were all over the place. I tried to get some good information for what the available range of each setting was and hit the middle on all of them.
Funny, I never heard one complaint about boat setup on the beach but I was getting weary of the complaints I was receiving about judicial decisions (usually from people that were not fully informed). I'm beginning to get weary of this here now.
