Hi Robi !

I've attached a pic. of my set up on the taipan F16. I don't think you can trivialize the consequences of having a foot slip thru the loop leaving you captive at the ankle (water is a dandy lubricant and the bones in your foot can be compressed into a surprisingly small cylinder - so no sailboard straps for me). My loop is safely large so that I can step into it , slide it past the deck to transom transition and gain stability with the ball of my aft most foot on the transom.When i've buried the lee hull, I just use the top of my foot to keep from flying forward. Wiring downhill is definitely faster (VMG and linear V) in the Taipan from wind velocities that allow uphill wiring.This said, I stopped wiring downhill last season after a really hard crash and collision with the third batten (!) that knocked the bolt rope out of my mast track(can you say Tre'buchet ?).I later noticed Doc sails really deep by flattening both sails (solo obviously) and sliding onto the tramp (sometimes midtramp {don't screw this up!}) when footing and fully hiked out when coming up into the wind.This technique requires alot of smooth movement and i'm not good at it.Additionally, I don't think this is as fast as wiring to "C" mark, but he always seems to be wild, and he doesn't capsize much...

I've resolved to wire downhill again in regattas because Doc and I are doing an event in the SF Bay in June that'll be very public and very windy (www.sanfranciscospeed.com). Wire flights required for decent speeds compared to the boards...

PK