Hey Moyra,
A couple of more tips...
I usually have Giselle hold the spin in one position instead of constantly sheeting in or out. I'll steer the boat to the wind, keeping a hull out of the water. If it drops, I'll heat it up a bit until the hull raises again. As your speed increases the apparent wind will move forward of the boat. This is very critical when surfing swells downwind. This will allow you to bear off a bit more while keeping the hull up. This is the "sweet spot" ...a narrow 5 to 10 degree groove
. You'll feel it...the boat comes alive. But you must be careful...too deep you lose your speed, the wind subsequently shifts to behind the boat, your hull falls back into the water and you end up wallowing. Not very fast
. In essence you are doing very slight "S" turns downwind to keep the hull up and the butterflies in your stomach
When the wind is lighter I'll have Giselle on the low side in order to fly the hull downwind. See the attached pic below.
Even though I have video tape on the spin pole wires (old H17 habit) I do not pay attention to them and sail the boat by feel. The video tape is really there for the light, shifty stuff.
Hope this helps and hopefully you can put it to use at the NAF18 Northerns (Twin Cities Regatta) in a couple of weeks. Good luck to you and Cab.
See you again soon.
JB