very nice description! would it be correct to infer that too much rake can also slow down your boat in lighter breezes? at the regatta the first day had breezes in the steady 10-15 knot range. next day not so much. still it didn't seem that anyone really changed any configurations much from the two days. racing ofcourse became much slower the second day. it could be that i wasn't as observant as i could have been to notice the changes that might have been made. still i did notice considerable backward rake on the second day. wish i could have been out on the water observing instead of stuck on the shore a mile from the course.
Tuning of the rig is, in my experience, often skipper dependent, and boat dependent. Many of the high end F18 sailors will tune according to wind, but I know good sailors that 'set (rake) it and forget it'. A significantly raked mast can, in theory, waste some wind energy, but this can be easily compensated for by repositioning the crew weight more forward on the boat. Obviously, as the boat floats, as this has the effect of pitching the rig forward, thereby counteracting the rake of the main. Just FYI, the same sailor may or may not tune the "bend" in the mast by tesioning the diamond wires on the main and rig tension prior to a race as this has another effect on the positioning and shape of the main. But that is another story!
