Not a whole lot really with regard to boat setup...I don't think we were quite optimized and distance racing doesn't lend itself to experimenting with mast rake and diamond wire tension very well since you are on such long legs. I do know that we missed the setup on several days - we had the mast raked much too far back on the first day and struggled in the light air. Round Cape Canaveral, we stood the rig up a notch expecting light air - we were greeted with 15 to 18knots immediately. Our spreaders were set at 1.75" back from the luff groove and we ran between 500 and 600 lbs of diamond wire tension. Mast rake, when measured by taking a trap line to the forestay bridle attachment on the hull and then back to the raised rudder, landed about half-way back on the rudder - typical heavy air and spinnaker setup. I really want to get out on the buoy course and experiment some with the diamond wires and spreaders sometime.

We were pretty fast right out of the box running deep with the spinnaker - that was the only day we actually got to see Team Tybee finish on the horizon ahead. With the kite up (and in some 2 - 3' rolling swell), I kept the traveler centered but would ease it 12" when a hull popped up quickly. As usual, I would steer down when the hull got light but sometimes coming off a wave, it happened so quickly that I didn't want to YANK the tiller to depower the boat. I felt it was smoother and maintained better speed to scallop the helm and ease the traveler at the same time. Later, we received some advice (from some really great sailors watching us chase them down) that we should have left the traveler eased in more of an average position but we didn't get another opportunity to really test that.

Frank and I learned a lot about making the boat fast upwind/tight reaching with a lot of breeze. I would first travel out and if about 18" of traveling out wasn't enough, Frank would start to ease the sheet. At times, compared to what we do with the F18, I don't think we were sheeting quite hard enough (I know Frank was getting tired of hearing me say it! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />) and I would find myself bringing the traveler back in to power up the rig while Frank was still easing - the new 10:1 mainsheet setup might be a good upgrade for the boat in the future. This timing is just part of learning to sail with each other and we got much better with it as the week went on. At other times, with the significant waves of Cape Canaveral (upwind in heavy air), I found the boat faster if I feathered/scalloped the helm over and down waves and worked the sails less. We ran down Castrol2 from nearly a mile back this way ... but, then with a slight change in sea state and wind pressure, suddenly that didn't work anymore and they walked away from us in just about the same capacity.

We tried a lot of different techniques throughout the week and tried to stick with the ones that worked. Occasionally we were at a loss as to why some boats were faster than us, other times we were proud of the speed we had. Frank had a really great attitude about experiementing with this and that and offering ideas and suggestions to try. The other thing that was great help, were the other competitors. Jamie Livingston, especially, offered tons of very useful advice nearly every day. Team Tybee was helpful as well. It still surprises me how much sharing goes on even at this level of the sport.