Sail Melbourne 2004
Oh man.. What kind of wind was these pictures taken in ?? 15-20 m/s ??
Truly awesome, but I tought the idea was to keep both hulls down in conditions like this 
I smell a story here Steve, did you save it, or did you go over. You seem to be quite close to the shore..
It would probably be easier to keep the hulls down if the skipper had the tiller extension! (notice it trailing out behind the boat in both pictures). I hate it when that happens!
Wow - incredible shots!
Jake: the captain is sitting at the back of the boat, steering with a death grip on the rudder crosspost. In those speeds, the extra drag from the extension is not important.
Notice how far forward the kite is flying on the second picture.. Wonder why 
The scene about ten seconds after those pics was one of the funniest I have seen, there was a T on it's side and two heads swimming madly for a boat that was getting very close to the breakwater, but it all ended well and there were many laughs had after.
Truly awesome, but I tought the idea was to keep both hulls down in conditions like this
I smell a story here Steve, did you save it, or did you go over. You seem to be quite close to the shore..
Hi Rolf,
Trade mark Sail Melbourne conditions. This was in 25 to 30 knots with short waves over 2 meters high.
We were coming back to shore with the other Ts and thought we would have a bit of fun and wind it up.
In the last shot my crew threw in the kite sheet. I started to ease a bit of main and bear away but the gust got us and we went swimming
Brent jumped of the transom and was seperated from the boat. I landed in the main sail putting my elbow through it 
. With Brent out of reach of the boat I grabed the mainsheet and pushed out to try and get a leg out within his grasp.
For about a minute Brent was bodysurfing down the waves to catch me but every time he came close the boat would catch a wave and we'd seperate. I jumped on the boat, retrieved the kite and managed to right it by myself by just leaning on the dolphin striker.
Brent was later picked up by another T after he recovered from a sectacular capsize too. This T (Current Oz champ), his crew was washed of the side of the boat with his rear foot still in the foot strap. Being draged along with the kite still up the skipper thought it would be best to jibe the boat and capsize. Yes the crew was very sore after.
Stephen,
Looking at the two piccies, it looks like you have just a minimal amount of downhaul on. Do you always let it off to allow so much fullness when it's blowing fairly hard like this down wind ?
I've found (albeit sailing single handed) that I get better drive (and better VMG) with more DH on in the stronger stuff....
Flattrer sails giving less drag (do not really need the lift to fly the Hull anymore) and more drive....
Any comments ?
Cheers
Simon
BTW looks fun to me......How many other swimmers that day ?
Hi, thanks for posting the pics. One question, in those conditions, why aren't you hiking out?
BTW, now you have me worried about the footstraps 
AWESOME!
We do not use downhaul when the kite is up to protect the mast from breaking.
Lost count of how many swimmers there were. We had these conditions all week. We swam once but it was during this ride back to shore. Just putting on a show for those on shore.
I don't think anybody avoided being washed of the boat atleast once during this regatta. One guy came of and was floating between the top mark and off set mark. They were in the lead at the time so the swimming skipper had the entire fleet scream reach staight pased him as he waved his hands in the air franticly.
BTW, now you have me worried about the footstraps
Howdy
When the crew traps with his rear foot on the rudder the kite sheet runs straight over the end of the rear beam.
I can climb under this and hike out infront of the rear beam but in these conditions you are not concerned with leverage (I also have enough with the 90kg+ crew).
I prefer to sit in a bit and out of the way of the kite sheet. Also lean as much of my body over the rear beam wher the weight is needed more.
Ahh, I see. If I ever get around to converting to the new rig, I'll be in the same situation. From your healing angle, it did look to me like you could have maybe used some more weight outboard
Fair winds
Hello,
What great pics! Thanks for the post.
By looking at photo # 1, I believe that the skipper is really Spiderman.....
Check it out,.....for he is on a wet tramp,..lots of movement of the rig,....an angle of at least 70-75 degrees ( o degrees is horizontal, 90 degrees is perpendicular)..
....and yet skipper Spiderman is perched comfortable admidships of the traveller......hmmmmmm. Plus, from the sunlight, one can see that his legs-feet are not extended to the lower hulls,...
...how do you do this Spidey-stance?
once again, great pics.
Bruce
St. Croix
USVI 
My leg is wrapt around a leg strap.... So I do not fall over the rear beem when hiking out over it
At least on my nacra 6.0, which has already inverted the mast once, I bent it back, I use the downhaul to help 'protect my mast and provide some extra 'backstay', along with leaving the mainsheet fairly tight and just using the main traveler.
Incidentally, what I thought was a totaled mast, now sails better than ever!
My point-I use the mains downhaul, because I thought I was protecting the mast more. guess I don't really have things figured out?
Hi Guys,
My spinaker/mast bending experience on RC27s and ARC22s is that as long as you keep the spin hounds at 1/3rd of the distance up between the main hounds and the top of the mast or less, NO PROBLEMS. I arrived at this location by trying the spin hounds at several heights above this position like 1/2, 2/3rds, 3/4ths, etc. AT higher positions the mast bent wildly out of control in strong winds. No problems, no bent masts, no broken masts, below the 1/3rd height point.
Bill