What I don't understand is the following :
you first state
>>(we were) closly followed by the sloop Tornado and on the upwind to the finish were overtaken to windward by the (sloop) T and finished second.
And than you state
>>Upwind we had a slight edge in hight and speed when we were powered up but in the lulls, suffered.
So did you or did you not have an overall edge when going upwind. If so how can you be overtaken to windward by a sloop rig ? If not then how much of an edge did you momenterally ? Did you loose so too much time on the tacks ? Or did you loose more during the lulls than you gained in the gusts ? What do you call powered up ? Do you have any idea why you suffered in the lulls and not in the gusts ?
Unfortunatly the top mark was close to the southern shore with a southerly breeze blowing. When we got close to it we were underpowered and only single traping. The finish line was closer to shore and the wind difference would have been about 10 knots. Neither of us could trap in this and the other T was powered up twin trap most of the time.
By powered up I mean two on trapeze hull flying and full downhaul. We had only a few boat lenghts advantage over the upwind but when the breeze died we kept a cover on them and in our wind shadow. On the last upwind they were able to power under us in a lull and we could not catch as we headed for the finish.
How do you and the other crew normally compare on the race course when both sailing with jibs ?
Ok we are normaly quicker...however over the season (since September) they have improved remarkably. At a regatta last fortnight they beat us in 1 off 5 races and were hot on our heels in 2 others.
>>>Off the breeze we could not split the two boats but were a little quicker rounding the top and bottm marks as the crew did not have to worry about the jib.
I gether you were both flying your spi's ?
Did the other have a selftacker ?
Yes we were both flying spinnakers and he has a self tacker jib. We both use the same sail maker and we helped them with the rig conversion and tuning. We also helped them with their downwind technique and they are now trapezing of the rudder too.
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