I love it when Rick tells racers to take off the leech tell tales because some day they may race against me. There is no way to know how hard to sheet the main w/o the leech tales, so everyone w/o them racing against me will probably be under trimmed (most common) and therefore under powered or stalling the sail by being over trimmed. If you put those leech tales back on your sail the way you had them (or at least the top one) then the top one will let you know how hard to sheet in while going upwind. The bottom one is more useful on a boat with a traveler and would let you know when to slide it in or out. SInce the Wave does not have that control then the lower leech tale is less useful.

You may have noticed by now that while sailing on the water you cannot get out of the boat and look at the leech to see how it looks like you can on shore (the way that Rick described). Well that's what the leech tales do for you - give you clear guidance on trimming the leech while on the boat. The wind direction twists from the water level to the mast head because it accelerates with height due to less friction. While the Wave mast is not very high, there can still be a significant wind angle variance, especially if the breeze is lighter and the water is bumpier. The leech tales will provide the visual indicators you need to see this and adjust the sail correctly. Without them it is like sailing blind.

It is O.K. to let the leech tale curl around the sail (or at least not stream straight back) up to about half the time. You are just trying to maintain attached wind flow across the sail and you maximize drive by bending the wind as much as you can while doing that. The only way you know if you are at maximum is to overdo it a little and that is when the tell tale curls behind the main. Then just ease a little to regain the streaming tell tale more of the time than it curls.

I hope this helps.