Thinking about racing yesterday, I was a little lapse on my boat setup. It was a friendly day but being a bit lapse is a bad habit to get into. Mostly it was OK but when I looked at the boat again this morning, I found the mast was bent sideways slightly because of an imbalance in the shroud tension. In future I will lay the boat down on its side and check down the mast to ensure it is straight first on port and then on starboard. Easy to get wrong and not notice until you wonder why you are faster on on tack than the other.
At the coffee break there was a discussion on how to ensure the jib boom set an equal distance from the mast on both tacks. Some loop the sheet through two or 3 of the deck eyes to ensure symmetry however rotating the jib sheet lead on the jib boom slightly will ensure symmetry when the sheet is led to the correct lead on the deck. One person suggested that the robot leads were fitted off centre to guarantee symmetry but when I checked this morning found this not to be the case. My personal preference is to rotate the jib lead on the boom slightly as this loops the jib sheet through the minimum number of leads so it will run freer in light weather.
When looking round the other boats in the coffee break, I noted that quite a few had not chocked their masts at deck level allowing for sideways movement. A bit of tape wrapped round the mast will easily fix this and make the rig more efficient.