Thanks for the clarifications.

I asked about the downhaul because your mast seemed very straight (little pre-bend and little downhaul applied) while your sail-trim looked like you was dropping power.

It might be fun to hear that I had the pleasure of following a two time Tornado olympian on a coach boat a week ago while he sailed his T. He used a similar trim to go fast upwind in a stiff breeze, albeith not with as extreme a twist (hard to say from the angles of your pictures). He also had a lot more mast-bend..

In the last picture, it looks like your boom bends less, so there must be less pressure on the leech.

Agree on the need for powerful mainsheets (and downhauls!). We have a 9:1 mainsheet on our T, and pull with something like 50-60kgs in a breeze.