- Sheet: tight, the boom touching the deck.

- traveller: the boom end on the transom corner or 5 cm outside.

- inhaul: touching the mast

- cunningham: most wrinkles smoothed out

- outhaul: 3-4 cm from max. tension

- centerboard: angled backwards, raised 20 cm. The smaller you are, the earlier you will be forced to raise the board.

- mast rake: in base position, or a touch back, if the mast is stiff in the lower part, a touch forward if the mast is very soft.

Rake base position

In 10 m/s the Europe starts to get seriously physical: Smaller helmsmen and -women will suffer against bigger ones. Lift up the centerboard to make it easier to hold the boat upright, smoothen the luff with the cunningham, tighten the outhaul and hike as hard as you can. (click for larger view).

About mast rake: The stiffer your mast is in its lower part, the earlier you need to adjust the rake to cope with the increasing wind. The stiffness of the lower part is revealed in the fore/aft tip figure of your mast bending curve. If the F/A tip of your mast is less than 380 (360 for heavyweights), your mast is stiff. Leaning the mast aft (step forward) will open the leech and make the boat easier to control. Controversially, your rake is said to increase, although the rake as measured ashore with a tape measure will decrease. Careful how you describe this to your coach!

In the opposite case, if your mast is very soft down low (tip figure 400 or more), you may need to move the rake forward (mast step aft) as the wind increases. Otherwise the sail leech will become too open and you cannot point anymore.

In a breeze, biggest gains are achieved through aggressive sailing downwind.