Geebus Todd, when did Sam piss in your fruit loops?

I'm sure you don't realize it but you two are more alike than not. And don't call me and give the the "you don't know sh!t old man" speach unless you change it up and make it interesting. Besides the call always ends the same way, I say something you don't like which makes you mad and you say f@ck off grandpa and the call ends. You're like the son I never had.

Oh you're just a broken old man after realizing you are way to fat and old to crew but I guess that was your epiphany after you drank away your shame for not making it into gold fleet at worlds last year.
But i do honestly have to offer you kudos for giving it a shot, it was very entertaining. I remember one mark rounding in particular where I saw you scurry across the boat so fast and I think it was accompanied by a nice loud fart as you were obviously digging deep. That was only one of two mark roundings I saw you so maybe the rest were better.
Either way, Sam knows what I meant and obviously you are more sensitive than him. You better lay off them hormones.
But you do know I love you just like a grandpa, because you are old enough to be mine.

Your story telling is a bit clumsy and inelegant you have the right idea it's just poorly executed keep at it Todd you'll get there.

Yesterday in similar 0-5 conditions we fared better. We ran minimal mast rake, diamond tension, and rig tension. We still got beat badly, however I felt our boat speed was in the right ball park this time.

We ran into another issue though. We had to put on pretty considerable downhaul in such light conditions to removed the hook from the sail. I found that the mast really didn't want to rotate on starboard tack. Anyone found a way help reduce this? I see how it happens with the AHPC system and feel it might be something we have to live with.

In my limited experience, rig tension seems to be the biggest factor for encouraging easy mast rotation. Another option is to use positive mast rotation line (cam cleats on the beam with about ~8ft line loop going to the rotation control yoke).

Regarding the main hooking, I use cunningham just to get the wrinkles out and have been pretty loose with the sheet - sheeting-in just to the point that the 2nd (of 3) leach telltales barely starts to act up. It seems to work pretty well.

I've been trying to decide if this is better/worse than more firmly sheeting and using more cunningham. I kinda think I'm headed in the right direction (at least in the really light stuff) because it gives a bit fuller and more powerful sail.

sounds like you're over sheeting for the conditions and that is what is causing the hooking. Aside from the main tension which is causing the hooking you have two tools which can be used to get rid of it. The Cunningham which you're using or the mast rotation. If you ease the rotation a little it will allow the mast to flex more fore and aft which has a similar effect as pulling on Cunningham.

I was auctually pretty pleased with the main sail. I've got 3 tells on the upper leech, most of the time they are all that I look at. The combination of of downhaul, mast rotation and sheeting made for a full sail with a nice shape. It seemed to be fairly forgiving in resisting stalling. Robbie Daniel did a clinic on the idea this spring, it seems to work well in the really light stuff. 2-4kts boat speed was about it.

The issue I am running into is that the downhaul system pulls on the mast from the beam, this is slightly on the starboard side. The mast easily rotates to that side. However theast doesn't want to rotate in the other direction because it's pulling on the downhaul line more:

On our boat Brooks has been running the main tighter upwind in the light stuff this year. It makes the groove narrow, been when you get it right it works well. He sits basically at the intersection of the main beam and the hull, which allows him to play the main sheet, jib sheet, and cunningham. It's one of the rare times I let him touch lines!

As a crew, my focus is on looking for pressure, and being ready to swing out onto the wire as soon as we have any pressure. I tend to always be hooked in, and often I hang next to the hull instead of sitting on it so I can rotate partially out to keep the boat as flat as possible.

As for the rotator, if it gets to the point where the mast won't rotate itself, especially downwind, Brooks will use his foot to hold it out.