General Up & Down tips

Upwind:

-Weight out of the ends, especially the back of the bus was critical. Light air I drove from in front of the wheel, reaching back to steer.
-Light air dramatic amounts of headstay sag was fast. In light, lump we sometimes carried 18" of sag.
-In ultra-light, we used the baby stay to open the main leach.
-Up wind in 25+, we let the top of main actually invert, vang sheeted and sailed on a nice flat #3. You may have to reinforce the deck around the partners to really vang sheet depending on how your vang is rigged. Well, we had to anyway.
-The rig was drum tight and we ultimately had to reinforce the deck beam.
-Hike bitches!

Downwind:

-We used flat headed kites and low pole to force an assymetrical shape in light and medium airs. Sailed at about 145 TWA, in medium airs, 135 TWA in light, (or 90-100 AWA).
-We carried the pole consistently about 2' lower than the clew and always went for speed over depth until the breeze was in the teens.
-We had incredibly light light air spin sheets, 3/32" kevlar core leech cord line. NO shackles. NO guys until solid 12 TWS.
-Breezy reaches we sometimes reefed, given helm from the oversized main.
-In a breeze, we had a bullet-proof 1.5 oz. stable runner that we could carry up to about 32TWS, but by then you were dialing for dollars on the helm.
-Low pole, never back more than 45?, twinged down. As SOON as the rig started to move to weather, BAM on the wheel to get the boat vertical. No hesitation.