Had a race on sunday, had a shocking start and ended up at the back of the fleet after the first mark (tacked 2 early, so had to make another 2 takes to make the mark, sheets and sail settings werent quite right either at that time, spent most of the race fiddling with them as the boat is still new and im still tuning it to my sailing etc), first half of the race was nothing special, managed to keep up with the back of the fleet. After practicing on the beach before the race, i finally got the courage to get right out on the wire and it felt like a totally different boat, i could sheet harder and point higher, the boat really took off and i steamed my way to 3rd spot out of the multis behind the clubs 2 nacra 5.8s (which by then were well in front), finished 3rd over the line well in front of any other multi and just infront of the monos (trailer sailers with kites etc) who started 10-15 minutes earlier than us.
Even managed to give the start boat a show as i crossed the finish line out on the trapeze bearing away and going almost vertical, the guys in the start boat were too busy watching me and almost missed another boat crossing the line

I cant thank you guys enough for all the advice, as said, once i had the confidence to get out there on the wire, and trust the wire, it became almost 2nd nature during the race, each time got faster and more efficient, and it opened up a whole nother dimension for me having never been out on a trapeze before, was the best fun ive had racing yet, and i love racing.
So thanks again guys.

Also wanting some advice about operating the rudder lock down while out on trapeze, during the race there was a large pack of jelly fish (hundreds of them) that i would encounter almost every upwind leg and my rudders would bounce up when i hit one at speed, im wondering if anyone has a system that will re-lock a rudder back down from out on the trapeze, ive got a few ideas, my current rudder lock down system uses a small line that goes from the top of the leading edge of the rudder through a pulley and then through a cleat on a hinge with a ball bearing-spring lock system that holds the cleat down untill enough force is applied to the rudders to cause the hinge to pop up/back releasing the lockdown line from the cleat. I was considering making the lock down rope much longer and running it along to the opposite deck with a pulley or 2 in there enabling me to pull on the line and lock the rudder down from the opposite side of the boat, maybe even make the line long enough to reached from the trapeze. As everytime the rudder kicked up (was usually the leeward rudder as the windward rudder was out of the water) i would loose steering control as one rudder was in the air while i was trapping and so would have to sheet off come in and put the rudder down before going back out on trap, quite time consuming and given the number of jelly fish happened enough times during the race for me to consider it a must fix problem.

Cheers.
Michael.