Eric-

Ed's response is right on- Especially about the bows DOWN part- I tended to try to go upwind w/ about 1-2" above the water! If you have a '83 you have the "straight through" diamonds- I upgraded and that helped my pointing ability- Also get a 5.2 jib (that was an upgrade in the later '80's and they are vertical cut and slightly bigger but much better shape!) and the new rudders are larger and "kick under" the hull- IF you can find some cheap that would probably be good- I never made that switch due to cost! I also upgraded my main by putting on a short traveler track (ala the 5.8 and 6.0) and get a positive mast rotator (for downwind). Very important upwind to keep the mainsheet tight and "play" the traveler (otherwise you lose your leech tension as soon as you sheet out)- I had to "slot" my rear beam slightly to allow the track (you should have the separate "I" beam track) to rotate slightly to align the track and mainsheet tension so the car will run freely- You can also upgrade to an "X" style car and track (Harken, Ronstan, etc.) but it's pricey-

You should also have the integral hull bolts w/ no straps- IMO this is probably the one "weak point" of the older boats- Check your nuts (not in public) and make sure they are tight but do NOT overtighten! Use plenty of anticorrosion grease on them. I found some short, SS lock nuts, ground down the semicircular "spacers" under the nuts and used the stock nuts, snugged down well w/ the lock nuts on top (I wanted to make full use of the threads) and my boat did fine. I often considered retrofitting to the straps and if I had had a problem w/ stripping I would have (still have the straps!). DEFINITELY upgrade the downhaul- to at least 8:1- very important to help depower and point-

I modified my trailer by using 2 x 6" wooden boards between the front and rear trailer crossbeams w/ 1 x 3" boards added to inside as a "lip" and carpet over whole thing, kept the rear roller (boards attached just in front of and slightly below)- The "keel" is so straight it works GREAT! Supports the boat along the whole keel and the rear roller lasts forever since it is only used to load the boat (Skeg ends in front of roller).



Kirt