How are you balancing the boat? We have a new local H16 sailor in our fleet that just didn't couldn't seem to get his cat going, sometimes he would even cross the start line well behind everyone. When I am sailing up wind I have one hull weighed down more then the other, always the leeward hull and have our weight up by the front cross beam corner casting on the weighed down hull. Down wind we do the same and when the wind is strong we do less of this and move our weight back. We currently sail against several I14's, a top notch 49er team, several Lasers, several TheMightyHobie18's, and several other H16s. Last week we took second out of all the boats in very light wind and in stronger winds we are usually first with PN number time and finish in front of the I14 and barrely behind the 49er with its spinnaker. This is a short course so its not ideal for H16 sailing but fun anyways.
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<br>Also don't forget to pop up the rudder you are not using as it creates extra dragg. Don't point to high and go to slow and don't point to low from the mark and then have to cover to much ground. You want to find the grove and maintain good speed up wind. I find if we loose more ground up wind than down when we are not in the grove. Of course don't forget to properly tuning your boat and pay attention to mast rake as mentioned in the other posts.
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<br>Hope this helps. <br><br>