My 18 seems to require weight forward on all points of sail unless it is really blowing. If you can hear gurgling from the sterns, you're slow. Upwind, if the bows are not down you can't point, and the boat is slow. I have theories on why this is given the hull shape and all, but I'm probably wrong about it all.



This doesn't reduce wetted surface, in fact it seems to increase it as the leeward hull gets plenty pressed in, so until you can start to pull the windward hull out I think more boat is in the water, not less. Typical light to medium air configuration is for the crew to be on the lee bow, forward of the crossbeam, with the skipper sitting on the crossbeam close to the mast. This applies to all points of sail until the wind starts to pick up. My crew gives me a hard time for sending them to the bow, but they don't know how sore you get sitting on the crossbeam...



In addition, mast rake plays a part in this - in light to medium any mast rake makes the boat drag the stern even worse, and performance really dies off the wind. Therefore I only rake the mast if I know the winds are going to stay above 18-20. Even if the winds are that high at the start, if there's a good probability it will drop I won't rake - the loss in performance when the wind dies is too great.