Thank You

This and the other hints in this thread made a big difference. I am trying use an old stock Hobie sail, for the Wed Nights in Houston, until my new sail gets here.

For a downhaul I used some old 3.5 mm spec 12 that had been treated with silicone to make it slick. It was almost like having real downhaul. I remember a Laser sailor showing me how to make a cascading system by tying loops in the line. I may have to talk to him.

I raked my mast back until I could just barely tension the leach on shore. I found that this not only helped pointing but changing the sheeting angle got rid on some big old wrinkles and only added a small new one. I still need to get rid of some stack height in the blocks. I have some old downhaul hardware that lets you put the blocks in the sail grommet. I will look at it this weekend.

I played with the bottom batten and found that an old TheMightyHobie18 batten and a tapered tubular batten marked "extra stiff" from a old Tornado sail to be about right.

It paid off. I am still slow compared to the dinghies when the wind is below 10 kts but not as slow as I used to be. I pulled off a 2nd by beating up on a Laser driven by a little girl that looked to about 12 with braces.

Don't laugh she was ahead of all the other Lasers and the boats that started 3 mins ahead of us and we were catching the ones that started 6 mins ahead of us.

I think it was more fun sailing that race on a Wave than an A-Class. With an A-Class the main rule is overtaking boats stay clear. With a Wave you can interact.