Foils,

We don't worry that much about keeping the boat in the "bucket". At 25' long she wants to go straight even with the boards up. The drag bucket for the foils is still about 7 degrees wide. As it is we sail the boat at the low end of the bucket most of the time to keep the apperant wind up over the wing. Pinching slows the boat down about 25% for just a few degrees of height, so we simply don't pinch unless we need to make a mark at the last minute.

Yes we raise the board if we need less lift. 6" upwind if we going more than 12 knots all the time. down hill we pull it up until the boat stops sliding to weather, or about 18" if we're doing say 16-18 knots.

Exact board span underwater? Span being the long measurement, what ever is in the water is in the water on the boards. They work with an inch in the water or 6 feet in the water. Span does not effect angle of attack, the rudder effects the angle of attack. the boards are in nice tight gaskets that do not allow for any rotation.

As for a water flow alignement indicator? For one it would weigh more, 2 it's another thing to look at. When we're doing 18 knots down hill and I'm sitting to leeward of the wing covered in spray and then we're both looking around the race course we really only want to focus on staying upright and being in a tactically good place. More toys are very low on our list of priorities.

For tuning issues like trim and angles etc, we look at our chase boat video after the day is over or talk with the coaches while testing on the water. Then we just go back and sail more and get the feel right and then just keep sailing more.

Make sense?