Hi everyone,

I've been crewing on a Nacra F18 at one of the local clubs in my area since early in the summer. Generally I'm out 1-2 days per week for club racing, and I'm hoping to do a few of the regattas in the British Columbia/Washington area next season either as crew or helming my own boat next season. Prior to the F18s I've had alot of time on Hobie 16s, and some crewing on an older Tornado(no spin). I've got a few different questions about rig setup and sailing techniques that I'd be interested in your input on.

First off, regarding mast rake, we've been following the Nacra tuning guide which can be found in the forums on this site. As a rule we've got it set for lighter air, which is the prevailing conditions in our area(8-12 knt range is typical). This means we don't have the mast raked back very much (If we use a section of line attached to the end of our trap wire which reaches the bridles in front, it is long enough to get to the inspection port just aft of the rear beam).

With this setup, it feels as though there is a huge distance between the boom and the tramp, even when I'm on the wire sheeting in the main as much as I'm able. Compared to the Tigers, it seems that they can get much closer to being block to block than we can, maybe 12-18" between mainsheet blocks for them, vs. 24-30" for us. We've only recently played with our rake, and haven't noticed a big performance change one way or the other, it just feels a bit off. How much rake do other Nacra F18 sailors find to be best in lighter wind conditions? And does the seperation between our main blocks seems unusually large to anyone else?

The other question I had was regarding the cunningham. When I was crewing on the Tornado, we had a 16:1 setup for the cunningham, and we would ease it/tension to almost continuously to power up/depower the upper part of the sail when beating. Generally once the crew was out on the wire, they'd take over the mainsheet, and they would pass the cunningham line back to the helmsman. We would then work in tandem to control the heel of the boat. This technique isn't something that I've seen any F18 sailors do, and I was wondering if there was a reason why it isn't popular? The one reason I can think of is that it may reduce the lifetime of the sails if you're putting a huge amount of tension on the luff.

Anyways, I'd very much appreciate any advice you have to offer.