I sailed LRN (P7) at Bala once. It was a joy to sail. It tacked like no ther cherub I've ever sailed, and soaked low on the runs with relative ease. Then the breeze picked up enough to wire, the combined righting moment that Si and I had to offer was greater than what it was designed for. The mast bowed at spreader level, the main flattened, the leech opened and the rig slackened off. It felt quicker for us to hike and only wire when absolutely necessary. Downwind the relatively aft position of the board, fore position of the mast and flat kite meant it preferred to go with the breeze rather than hot it up too much. The flat long footed main that could easily go out to the shroud in even light breeze (relative kicker angle) helped soaking too.
I had a brief sail in Aquamarina from Castle Cove when Will and Lucy had her. It was a blasting weekend and the big orange kite had destroyed another rudder stock gudgeon on Mango, so I was watching from the beach as Si was rallying to Bristol and back to pick up the spare blade. I'm not sure if Will and Lucy were exhausted or took pity upon me but I was handed Aqua and a keen lad who wanted a go. It was offshore and breezy, so kite up straight away. Once it was up we broke free of the lee of the land and where in the proper breeze, quite a lot of it. My crew, although keen, was not so steady on his feet. The kite was ragging away up front unsettling us a bit, witches my still keen crew seemingly grabbing ang pulling every line but the sheet. Finally he found it and heaved in metres of sheet, all of it. The knot had undone itself from all the flogging. We went for a gybe as the other sheet was still on but went in. Getting going again took several minutes. My lack of experience with Aqua and this crew meant we would go back over before we were settled enough to sheet on. I recall Clive mentioning somewhere that one of the reasons for the solid wings on A&E was the added stability you get when slow speed manouvering over a racked boat, this is definitely the case (although the difference was far subtler on Badgers/Subtle). Anyway, we went back in. The keen crew seemed exhausted, or perhaps he'd had enough of me? But I liked the racked arrangement on Aqua for twin wiring, much better than the solid tanks in Mango.
I only saw the Appleby at the Largo nationals, it looked decent enough to me. something makes me think it was v light.
The squid was visibly non symetrical in the bow sections, Graham D got it going on occasion at the PYC nationals.
Mainsheets posts were only there for the helm to hold onto something when it got VERY exciting.
