I agree that as wind picks up and you start burying one AMA, or get weatherhelm with these boats (we have a TI). I find I can go faster with the main furled in one turn, if higher winds more turns.
Another thing I know I tend to do is pull the sail too tight, (bad habit) you can tell you have the sail too tight (pinched), is if the far side tell tale is dancing in circles.
Also when it's very gusty I tend to furl the main in a turn or two, I don't go as fast, but I feel safer.
I feel direction and heading is a general term with these boats,(I want to go kinda thataway,(lol)). Meaning I don't continually adjust my sail, I adjust my heading by watching the tells to get to the highest efficiency. Most of the time the wind varies around a bit, and I do slight course corrections, watching the tells to ensure maximum efficiency. You kind of want to sail with rudder close to neutral keeping the boat balanced (the rudder creates a huge amount of drag).
The centerboard also creates a lot of drag, you really don't need a lot of center board on most points of sail, the AI2 now has an adjustable centerboard (A nice feature), A tiny amount of side slip isn't the end of the world, you can sail faster and more balanced if you allow a little sideslip sometimes.
I wear a gps around my neck that I monitor and adjust the boat for max speed, not so much heading, which I use as a general term (thataway).
We live in SWFL and the keys, which are vast and we tend to do a lot of long hauls (50-60 milers) and I tend to hike out and lay on the tramps (away from all the control lines for all of our sails). Sailing with a balanced boat is much less physically demanding, (using my weight to keep the AMA out of the water), that's the downside of having a modded out TI (ours is pretty modded out), they are extremely physically demanding, especially that tiny rudder control on your hand, and constantly uncleating and recleating the control lines, my hands look like hamburger after 6hrs.
FE
|
twist and stow rudder. As there is plenty of advice in the various forum subjects, I won't go into detail except to remind you that it is well and truly time to reef. Not only will full control of the helm return, but you may easily pick up speed as you are not trying to drag a fully submerged ama through the water.