Theo,

I presume you are sailing without a Spi.

Firstly, I do not know the ‘take off point’ on the 5.5. You will just need to find this over time – ie the point when going wild actually pays off.

Anyway, the process is fairly simple, head up (and sheet in the main and traveller as you do) the hull will then lift, bear off, but not so fast as to dump the flying hull back in – SLOW. – Plenty of tell-tails on the mainsail will help toy to understand how much sheet to apply – it will be more than you think !

With time you will be able to judge how much to head up in order to unstick the hull and also how hard to bear off to keep it flying without swimming.

The critical things are :

Steering – Smooth is the best
Sheeting – you will need to play the main and traveller while steering
For / aft trim – well forward in the lighter stuff and slowly back as it gets windy.
Mast rotation – Needs Max to get the hull flying and then reduce to get more drive and less lift as the wind increases – this may be your problem if it feels like you get the hull to fly with no forward drive…..