Help needed on how to "rig" the boat?

[Duncan Adams]

Thanks to the link Matt,

Well the first sail was interesting to say the least, went out in steady 15knts easterly, had 2 good beats and 2 very pleasing down wind stints. then things got interesting, the wind went south and up to around 35knts in the space on 2 minutes, that layed us flat for a bit, had to drop the main to get it to come up and stay up. Then the wind east and dropped to nothing and we had to paddle in?!

Still while it was going well I absolutely loved it, really well balanced up wind and it picked it's feet up off wind, what a great boat!

I'm pretty sure we didn't have enough rig tension as the mast wast very straight off wind, which was a little worrying, so if anyone has a rough guide for Ali rig's that would be very useful.

[Duncan Adams]

Had the second sail over the last weekend, much more of a "normal" sail. Nice 15 - 18 mph, had it going quite nice we took a gps out to see what we were doing.  Up wind we were getting 6.5knots does this sound about right, I know GPS isn't class legal but very useful when trying to figure out if we're sailing it right. Is there such a thing as a target number table (polars) for the Viper?
Down wind we were pretty constant at 11 - 12 knots but saw 13.7knts at best.
Without another boat to go against any views on these numbers would be good?

[Drew Harper]

Had the second sail over the last weekend, much more of a "normal" sail. Nice 15 - 18 mph, had it going quite nice we took a gps out to see what we were doing.  Up wind we were getting 6.5knots does this sound about right, I know GPS isn't class legal but very useful when trying to figure out if we're sailing it right. Is there such a thing as a target number table (polars) for the Viper?
Down wind we were pretty constant at 11 - 12 knots but saw 13.7knts at best.
Without another boat to go against any views on these numbers would be good?

Interesting topic.

Actually TackTick and Velociteks ARE class legal now.

I use 5.6-5.9 as my upwind target. Much more than I figure I'm footing too much. 13.7 is a good top speed. Never hit higher than 20.7 on our boat....kind of a nuke day too. I've heard rumors about mid twenties but don't know anyone personally. I tell you, at anything approaching 20, there's not much boat in the water....pretty skippy. Fun as hell...like Nixon says...'funmeter gets pegged.'