Mark,
You didn't do so bad yourself.

What great fun that looks like. Wish we had beaches like that here.. Bet you can even do it during winter.



It is that, and all of the above. A very complex skill that is hard to gain and takes a lot of time to opimize but one that really gains places on the racecourse.

Yep, And Wouters last words were something to the effect of not going into the water.

I think that was something like my 6th pitch pole of the week.

Matt was feeling uncomfortable that he hadn't been wet yet so headed straight for the water... :-)

Thread: I must say the thread had been interesting to me. I do agree that steering is 50% of the downwind run, but difficult to explain here. You can only practice on the water.
The other bits and pieces have maybe less effect but are easier to dicuss here, therefore it makes them equally important to me.

I've mailed to Landenberger also, our luff tension was also too high. You should be able to pull the eye at the luff just below your spinnaker pole, so about 10cm of 'slack'. (I'm not sure my vocabulary is correct here).

Next 4 Sundays coming up we have regattas planned, so I hope there is one with light wind... :-)

I'm thinking the last words were, "awww shiiiiiiii....!"

I struggle in very light winds also! I have seen somebody run their halyard out about 6ft and run really deep... the sail is very unstable though.

The Goodall kites I have seen are all very tight along the luff... no slack!

My Goodall spinnaker has a luff tension line.

Robbie Daniel told us that luff tension should be 1% longer than the distance from the pole to the top of the hoist hieght. I think most people are using a stopper ball to make the height at the top adjustable, and also raising/lower the pole to get the number right. The folks at CRAW, (Catamaran, Racing, Association of Wisconsin), swear by two fingers grabing onto the luff and turning it 90 degrees.