Quote:
His sails looked tighter than mine and the back of the main seemed higher on his boat.
Rich,
It's very easy to get the main too tight in light wind. A common mistake is "I'm not moving fast enough, so I'll pull on the main sheet more". The back of the boom, what I'm assuming you saw on the 14 being "higher" than yours, is directly related to how tight the main is sheeted. His main sail/sheets were loose letting the main naturally take on a foil/wing shape and creating forward motion. You "build" a little shape into your sails, on land, by tightening the battens, giving the sail a curve. Oversheeting, or pulling the boom too close to the rear crossbar flattens the sail out, that's OK in medium to heavy winds, but in light winds it's like stepping on the brake pedal.
Then as Nick stated, the downhaul for the front of your sail, should always be pulled just tight enough to take out the wrinkles. The same thing is happening here, too tight and you're flattening the sail and taking out the curve you put in when tensioning the battens.
Hope this makes sense.
Pray for those on the coast.