Hello all, I bought Aero 1819 from RS last week as an ex-demo boat with a 7 rig. I sailed the boat for the first time this weekend, and was looking for some help in answering a couple of questions.
1. Sailing downwind in light airs, I found it very difficult to get myself forward beyond the centreboard case. I found myself sitting on the non-slip by the centrebard, working out ways to get further forward, and failing. Only thought I had was to hook a leg round the front of the centreboard, but by the time I'd had the thought the race had finished, and I thought I'd need yoga lessons to do it. Is there a way to get further forward, with any degree of comfort and stability ?
2. My other boat is a 200, and that boat uses mainsheet tension to manage the leech and pointing until we get fully powered, at which point we use vang to keep flat. Do you guys use mainsheet tension as a vehicle to manage the balance between pointing and speed, in the lower wind ranges ?
3. The kicking strap control line and bungy for the centreboard seem to foul each other on my boat. Is there a fix for this? I wondered about just having a much longer length of bungy, so it keeps the centreboard in the slot after capsizing, but doesn't interfere with the vang.
What a great boat, very responsive and rewards hard work, and doesn't try to kill you downwind (my last s/h was a 300).
Cheers, Mark.