CalCup 3- still learning...

Getting rolled off the start...
Getting passed to leeward...

These cant be signs of a good regatta but depending on how you look at the mistakes you make, can determine how well you succeed.

photos via Lyrah Colvin

I used this past weekends Calcup as another round of testing before the big events in July on the city front and in the gorge. I played with a few downhaul settings on the avanti 10.0. Some worked. Some did not.
I tried my small fin in medium breeze. It worked well when I had clear air and room to foot but the moment I had to fight to keep my position on the first beat or around the leeward mark, I was suffering.
The 64 kashy is great for downwind and more than manageable upwind but there was to be sufficient breeze to keep the foil lit up. On the other hand- Ive been having good success with the Z 71 F fin in terms of being able to pinch well in the flat water and flood tide. The softer tip becomes a bit of a liability downwind in the breeze. The one fin Im anxious to dial in more is the 68 Z F.
Having good equipment is golden but knowing how and what limits your equipment can perform at its best is priceless.
Im still feeling boom height plays a huge role in upwind performance.
More so on this years starboard 167 than any previous board Ive sailed.
The higher I can run my boom, the better angle I have.
That is, up until a point where a high boom is preventing you from keeping the nose of the board down when it starts to get overpowered. Then. when you're overpowered, the low boom is better for control.

2 good races in 2nd & 3rd and 2 mid pack races were enough to give me an idea of what was working and how far I could push my small fin- not too far!

Xavier look comfortable on the 167w and NP9.5 taking all the bullets with Tom stepping it up on his North 10.0 for 2nd. Interesting to see Xavier running his mast all the way forward in the track for control. Im pegged at or just forward of the recommended trim settings with my 9.5 and 10.0.

Although I haven't had as much time as I would have liked on my NP evo4 10.7, Ive been relatively successful with making the 530 x9 mast work in lieu of the recommended 550 x100. Crad and Al have found the 10.0 evo 4 is working much better with the older 530 x9 mast vs the newer recommended 520 X100 masts. With that said, I expect them to up their performance in the next few weeks and for it to be very close racing for the North American Championships next month.