Fourty-some downloads of the picture and, so far, only one reply. Well thanks for taking the time to reply, Carl!

I'll comment on your reply:

Not sure what you are seeing that you say is a lift of the MDR harbor, but it might have been where I had to 'fall off' to avoid a big jetty that parallels the shore and is located West of, and perpendicular to, the main channel.

Note that the track shows a downwind return trip in the main channel and that my upwind, outbound route is not shown until I got to the place that is covered by that big "pacific ocean" label, in the picture.

I don't know what "the del rey triangle effect" is and I hope you're not talking about Delray Beach, FL, because I'm in Marina Del Rey, CA.

True the "main only" configuaration will point higher, but analysis of my tracks when sailing sloop rigged show that my boat loves to sail close to the wind. I do use a vmg meter to see how well I'm doing and my boat loves to sail up there around 50º to the wind. (as long as I have enough wind to keep the boards moving fast enough to do their job)

I would have to agree that aspect ratio is very important. By reducing about 15% of my sail area off of the leech, I've done just that. The boat seems to like it. And as you may have guessed, I am having to move (tilt) my rig aft to accomodate the forward movement of my CE.

You say you pinch too much (according to your vmg). What do you suppose causes this? I find that when I have too much weahter helm (true, not apparant or perceived helm) that I don't stay as low as I should. I always fix this with mast rake adjustment.

I have not yet measured how close to the wind I can sail. This will make for an interesting test someday. If I pinch high enough, I may even find a point of sail where my vmg is not as severely harmed as it is when I point just slightly too high. We'll see; I may even have to come in off of the trapeze to do it. I have serious doubts that I'll find a point of sail higher than 46ºt(rue) that will be anywhere near as good as sailing the lower angles.

When you say that the I20 sailors have not yet finished dialing in these boats, it makes me want to get one and try my hand at it. I am not a racer and even if I was, I'd have a hard time comparing myself against others. I don't think that there is another Mystere brand catamaran on the West side of the Continental Divide. I have never seen one, that's for sure.

In the beginning of your post you commented that it was good that I was not veering.

Thank you for saying so, but what is veering?

You later talk about Zen and sailing without visual aid. That's me; you got it. I don't even want a flimsy old windex aboard my stout and sturdy catmaran. No room for such a flimsey, breakable device. I will admit, however, to using tell tales on my sails. After all, I can't see wind; only the effects of it's pressure.

One more thing: I mentioned that my fine, plumb bows seem to make a good lifting foil. Well that is possibly true, but I am still confused about how it still yields to less side-slip than does a Tornado in light conditions when I have my bow above the water. In light air, when I'm sailing a Prindle 19 or a Tornado, I see an alarming amount of side-slip that is not present in my Mystere. I wonder what is going on there.

I would love to hear a commentary from someone who has sailed both a Mystere 6.0, a Mystere 6.0XL, and a Tornado. That would be a very interesting comparison/contrast story to me.

Sail Fast,
GARY