If indeed he had the Ullman sails then that is the explanation between the large difference in performance. I've sailed/raced with both sails and the Glaser sails were a quantum leap up.

Basically, the concensus appears to be that the Ullman F16 mainsails of the years 2005-2006 are rather good as 1-up sails but lack significantly in the 2-up department. The squaretop falls away too soon when 2-up and also touching the downhaul or mast rotation would kill the sail in that usage. Overhere we settled on a single fixed mast rotation and downhaul setting and never ever adjusted it. Then the same boat owner got one of the Alter Cup Blades with the Glaser suit of sails. It was like someone had turned the afterburners on. So same platform and mast, same crew (160 kg combined), different suit of sails and a really noticeably improvement in speed.

Of course these Alter Cup sails (2007) where a first try by Glaser (after the prototype sail tested by Matt/Gina) and so yes a second generation design by AHPC/Goodall probably have widened the gap to the Ullmans even more.

But before we write-off the Ullman sails; I underscore that the owners do like them when sailing 1-up; the cut seems to be right for that usage and I may track one down myself as a dedicated 1-upper.

Wouter