Hi JJ,

I had not been looking at this forum, hence the delay in responding. I have a confession to make. I was reading my wind speed indicator in KPH instead of MPH when I was reporting those high wind speeds. So the actual wind speed matched what we were reading off the nearest government bouys (low 20s) when we got back to the house we were sharing. It was an embarrasing mistake and everyone felt better that they were handling REALLY BIG wind instead of just windy conditions so I just kept my mouth shut. My experience is that anytime the wind goes above 20, then it is difficult to race well, especially in small boats. I suspected something was not right so on further review the next day, I discovered the error.

The sail shape that I noticed that looked best for the windy conditions and proved fastest was what Patrick was using. It had a tight lower leach that allowed him to point well but quickly opened up on the top third so that he could hold the boat down. I did not ask him how he got that shape but I suspect that he did it the same way Rick did - by adjusting the battens to get the stiffness right in the right places to match his weight to the wind speed. Both of them had several extra battens to use. They may have been able to dial this right in from racing twice a week all summer long with good racers at Put-In-Bay, on Lake Erie. There is no substitute for regular racing to get good and dial the boat in for various conditions. I guess I will have to get a little more ambitious and start playing around with battens myself if I want to keep up with these guys.

Mike