This is a good question, and it sounds like you are having the same problems as myself. I have been experimenting with sidestay tension. I am not using an aussie haliard system, so we may have different rigs. I think that I do better with lots of tension on my rigging. It keeps the mast more verticle; when you heel, you mast/sails changes verticle entry angles to the wind. The books say run your rigging looser in light and heavy winds. I read a discussion on one of those mono-hull sights, and they recommend between 5 and 10 percent of breaking strenght. Which is around 200 lbs. Automotive parts stores can get a belt tension guage, that I think one could use to guage wire tension. I have a couple of these guages, and next spring plan on using it on my wires to see how it works.
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<br>Last summer, I believe that the looser my rig was the worse my boat seemed to point. My next mission is to look at mast rotation. I wish the A Fleeters would help us out on these things, but guess information is classified. I have several books, but none of them are very definative; they leave you guessing, just like before.
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<br>The only time that I have ever been able to point very well is when the winds are screaming. I think the combination of an old boat and heavy weight kills one's ability to point on a 16. <br><br>