The above table is really for guidance only. I would urge you to work at
understanding the concept of the rig design as detailed above, and then think
about your own individual settings
8. The centreboard: generally speaking it should stay all the way down, all the time:
In a breeze upwind it may help to raise it a few degrees, and downwind in the real
light gains possible may be made by raising it 30-50% to aid soaking – definitely only
sub 5-6 knots of breeze.
3. Rig concept - Downwind
There will be times when the tactical decision is to leave the kite in the chute – and
at these times all those of you with previous singlehander experience will be fine –
and I will not aim to cover all those eventualities here, but a quick remember about
the cunno – ease loads, and don’t over kicker - too flat is not too fast on a white sail
reach:
But downwind of course is really about the kite!! And it always helps to understand
whats going on: The leech of the kite does twist and that should as far as possible be
emulated by the leech of the mainsail: and that means ease the kicker – loads
and loads: that will then allow you to sheet in a bit and help to open the slot
between kite and main. A tight leech will knock you over, whilst stopping the kite
really working properly!
Another key point to remember is the power to weight ratio of this boat is right up
there – it will respond to “heating it up”, apparent wind thus creeping fwd which again
is why the main will want to be sheeted in a bit – it will be quick, but you might need
to hike out! Just remember – when you go for the drop, ease the mainsail – as it will
very quickly load up again as you slow down:
A final point about the kite halliard – it should be no more than 16metres long and
when the kite is stowed the halliard take-up block should end up (under good tension
from healthy shockcord) half-way between the back of the centreboard casing and
the cheekblock attached to the deck.
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