Mates: This is regarding a recent thread.I received the attached message from a friend of mine. He is a Washington state sailor named Skip Meisch,who thinks nothing of sailing 30 or 40 miles to a race, mostly winning the event and then sailing back home - all in the same day!!! Anyway, his knowledge of C22's is obviously better than mine. My thought was to forget the downhaul and go with the cunningham. I should have checked with him before I opined. Don, The advice you got about the Class rules and the mast banding is accurate. But if they are not sailing in a one design class, almost anything goes. Personally, I prefer a 4:1 or better cunningham. That is what I have. I set the boom down haul to limit the full hoist so that the headboard will not hang-up on the backstay. If I expect light winds, I set the boom down haul a little lower so the roach will not always hang up on the backstay. Then I use the cunning ham for draft control. I'll usually set the halyard tension for the down wind run and use the cunningham for upwind control. That way I don't have to adjust halyard tension after hoisting. The problem I see with using a cunningham directly on the boom is that the gooseneck has a lot more drag on the mast slot than the sail slugs do. So a higher purchase would be needed just to overcome the extra drag. Pulling down on the boom will also pull down on the foot, thus requiring even more purchase. A cunningham is simple and does what is needed. As for reefing: At my cunning ham cringle, I have a loop of line permanently attached. The top cunningham double block is attached to that line with a carabineer. I have another loop of line coming from the sail slug just above my reef tack. After I reef, I move the cunningham carabineer to the higher reef carabineer loop. I do the same with the outhaul. It is also attached with a carabineer and can be moved to a loop of line at the reef clew. Now I can flatten the reefed main real good. I have my 22 set up with virtually all the controls you will find on the bigger boats. I use them as your charts suggest. The only exception is the traveler which is very short and all the way back on the transom. It offers very little traveler control. So the vang has to be used more. Skip