F235 loves light air
Jim, I have found that the 235 moves very well in light air, but true to the nature of this boat, it is a small groove to find. I don't race, but I am a constant tinkerer with sail shape and control and I love playing pirate with my 4 year old, to chase down the other sailboats on the river :>). There are two areas that I concentrate on when the wind is light; Sail shape and water drag. For optimum sail shape, I get my biggest, lightest cloth headsail up (for me this is my 135%, not my 150%, because it is a lighter cloth), set the leach line as light as I can on both the main and genny, ease the outhaul and maybe even ease the halyards. I also make sure there is almost no tension to the backstay. This makes the sails significantly full in there shape to provide power in the lightest puff. My concerns over drag are in two areas;<br> One) I don't want to change the boats course or hull shape to the water unnecessarily, so I refrain from using the rudder for small corrections and instead steer with the sails. I also try to stay very still<br>Two) I also sit to leeward and forward so the sails are full and the stern is not dragging.<br> Sometimes the smaller boats do have an advantage in light wind, since they have less weight to get going and ussually can accelerate quicker in a small puff (inertia and all that technical gobbly gook). Hope this helps.
