Dennis,
My boat was built in 2000, and I bought it a half dozen years ago from the original owner. The sails that came with Footloose were the original sails, and buying new sails helped a great deal, although getting the jib lead right took a couple seasons. I also bought a reaching asymmetrical spinnaker for lighter air days.
As built, the jib halyard is tied off at the mast, with no means to tension it. For a couple years I tied a loop in the halyard at knee level next to the mast and stood on it to get some tension, but last year I finally ran the jib and spinnaker halyards back to the winches on the cabin top. I also changed the arrangement of the main outhaul and ran it back to the cockpit, because it could not be adjusted at all underway. You might want to consider these improvements. I also took off the sail bag on the boom and replaced it with lazy jacks.
A Beneteau 311 is definitely a cruising boat and not a race boat like the First series, although the hull was originally designed for the Figaro I one design, single-handed, ocean racing class. There are YouTube videos of singlehanded sailors breaking out a spinnaker at 40 knots in the North Atlantic and take off skipping a cross the waves, but that version has a huge sail plan, a deep bulb keel with more ballast, water ballast also, and twin rudders. The 311's sail plan and ballast are dialed back considerably, and is largely designed for the Mediterranean and Caribbean charter fleet. The 311 sail plan is set up to be balanced and easy to handle, not sail with the leeward rail in the water and six people up to windward.
The 311 doesn't point as high as performance boats and has limited keel area, but it is easily driven, so for racing try to make the best use of that feature by keeping the boat moving and footing rather than pinching. Watching VMG on the GPS can provide some guidance on upwind and downwind angles. I find in regional races that I can point about as well as a good performing multihull, and if the apparent wind is 8 knots or better upwind I can usually keep up or pull ahead of the medium club racers in a regional race. The 311's real downfall is sailing dead downwind in light to moderate air, largely because of the small jib. Buoy racing in windward-leeward courses is especially tough. The 311 is better suited to distance racing or at least trips out and back to something or around the bay. On the other hand, I've had some long passages on Lake Erie where I've sailed downwind in 30 knots with a short, 6-8' following sea, sometimes at night, and the boat is very stable and comfortable, with no tendency to broach or round up like some IOR and older PHRF designs.
I, too, have been racing for many decades, with some success, but largely on others boats. The PHRF rating of the 311 should really be 10 or 12 numbers higher than what I have.
