Hi Carl,
Glad to see you are still in the Wave. But, what has happened to your lovely wife? She was really gung ho for a while there.

On the downhaul, class rules allow for 8' of line. I use small dyneema which is quite slippery and can easily get three wraps around the horn, using the middle and the outside of it.

The Lasers used to almost have a macrame thingy for their vang, but finally have legalized real equipment. I guess our class wanted to sort of emulate that. I get plenty of downhaul with the three wraps, but it would be easy enough to throw in a couple of small bowlines for extra purchase.
Funny, but with the Laser, they were not allowed to lube the line. So, everyone would apply lots of bullfrog on their exposed skin.., and then accidently mess with the vang afterward.

Raking back is an absolute must, it seems.
Also, almost everyone is going with really stiff battens at the bottom (acting more like a boom than a batten). And with the good aftermarket sails, are using pretty stiff battens in the lower sail, softer in the top. If it howls stick in some extra battens in the top for stiffeners.

Against the mono crowd (Force 5, Laser and Sunfish) here we are usually ahead of them most of the time unless it is very light and shifty -- OH that is right, you are in Houston..., silly me.
In any kind of wind we leave them in the dust.
Gotta get you to come to some of our events around the country.., great competition and great people.
Have fun
Rick