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I have raced my F18 carrying an extra 18kg of crew weight onboard and watched this happen many times. Then when I am sailing at min weight, the disadvantage is gone and you are doing likewise to the heavier boats.


Just for arguments sake....

The quote above references 2 crew weights, which (to me) may mean two dfferent crew members. Could the performance difference you experience be related to having different crew onboard? Certainly crew work would reflect on your ability to get around the course/manuever/etc.

Just asking, as your assertation seems to be fairly general and COULD be misleading to the exact cause of the decreased performance.

No disrespect to the crews involved, of course.


This has been experienced over many different crews, all very good sailors.

With my crew I sailed with for 7 years, we steped onto the Capricorn at 186 kg, and by the time the AUS Worlds came about, we were 164kg. We could feel the difference in the boat as we became lighter. Just after the Worlds, I had several different crews jump on ranging from 85kg to 65kg. VMG was better as the crews got lighter.