Sail Settings.

What a great session. Getting the pies in obviously helped me a great deal as I seemed to be going pretty quick. I don't always mention my sail settings but I think it's worth mentioning today. Upwind I was fully depowered. Cunningham cringle down on the gooseneck, kicker pulled on as much as I could manage (bent like a banana). The only place I left any shape in the sail was in the foot. I left a minimal curve instead of flattening it right off. I do that to retain a little power low down on the sail where it has less effect to help me get through the chop. Off wind I let it all off and had marginally more kicker on for the reaches than for the run.

You've now set the boat up to go quick, but how? Being quick in windy conditions is largely down to maintaining constant heal. Doing this is important as it allows the foils to work at their most efficient and reduces the amount of unnecessary steering (which acts as a break). There are two reasons why sailing in waves makes this harder to do. On top of the wave the rig is higher and so is exposed to the full force of the breeze. When in the trough the rig is slightly shetered and the pressure is reduced. The second reason is that water flows from the top of the wave to the trough on both sides of the crest. This current pushes you slightly to windward (giving you more pressure) on the back of the wave and pushes you to leeward (giving you less pressure) on the front of the wave. This gives a cyclic variation of pressure in the rig.

So the technique goes as thus. Approach wave, steer up into wave to get past adverse current on the face of the wave, sheet in and maybe lean in slightly for a rest. As boat gets to crest, bear away slightly. let the sheet out a foot or two and lean out to allow for the extra pressure. Sheet in and head up as next wave approaches and so on. Remember tht there will be flat spots when you don't need to sheet out as much and you ca n control the pressure with steering and hiking. Part of being quick is recognising the times when you need to use the skills. Also, every now and again some extra chops come along to disrupt your cycle. Use the 'Long haul' techniques for punching through these whilst sailing free (footing, sheeting out) before getting back into rythmn. Makes sense?

The sheeting technique will only work if you have loads of kicker on! If you don't have it on, the boom pops up as well as out when you sheet out from the block to block position. This straightens the mast and powers the rig up rather than releasing the pressure, the complete opposite of what you want to achieve. If you don't like tacking with loads of kicker on, let it off before the tack then pull it back on afterwards to avoid the dreaded 'irons'.

Following on from Rons rule 42 response. Here's my subtle tips for getting that bit extra out of the boat. When approaching big waves. Instead of just leaning out more over the crest, incorporate a rapid aft movement of your shoulders with a drive forward through your hips. This helps punch the boat over the wave and delivers an instant pulse of force through the rig to counteract the increase in power.

A similar technique can be applied with each 'jab' of a tiller in the chop technique. All questions welcome.