I have a race on saturday that might have wind in the 5 knot range. I've felt comfortable with my boat speed over 10 knots. In the light air I've felt relatively slow no matter what adjustments I made in sail trim while obviously keeping the weight well forward. I saw the light air post in the general forum but I had a question that I think is more specific for F16 sailors. I've tuned the mast bend according to the Vectorworks manual. Do any of you lighten up on the mast bend when you know the conditions might be lighter than usual? I'm starting to think this is a thoroughbred race horse that wasn't designed to trot. That's ok with me I just want to see if it would help if I loosened up on the diamonds a turn or two. Thanks. Greg
You can loosen up things, but recognize that at best you are adjusting something that has less than 1% effect on your performance.
Maintaining boat speed in cats is everything. In medium air anyone can make the boat go forward and feel good. Once things get either side of that is where you can see how well you may really be doing.
1. You want to make sure you have a good transition of the mast and sail all the way up the mast. If you have this do not worry any more on the diamonds. Most of the transition is controlled with the down haul adjustment anyway, the diamonds are just the fine tune trim with the gross adjustment being the DH.
2. Make sure you are not over rotating. Much more than about 45 degrees will start to cause drag. If it is wavy and you have to reach to keep momentum in the light stuff, then maybe a little more will be OK, but normally too much make the boat feel sluggish and unresponsive. Sheet to keep the tells in line.
3. Once you have those things covered, it is all about the tiller. Steering the course to keep up the speed is going to be 90+% easy.
