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- The forestay goes slack when the jib is raised so that all the tension is on the embedded wire in the jib.
Uh, yeah . . . that's the way a 16's forestay works. If the slack bothers you, tie a piece of bungee to it and pull the slack out.
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- When tacking the tiller must be flipped back to clear the mainsheet block. This is very awkward to me and I lose control of the rudder.
Again, that's the way most catamarans work. It's a matter of technique to flip the tiller extension around the back without losing control of the rudders. When you tack, you kneel facing aft, hold the tiller crossbar with one hand while you flip the tiller extension around the back with the other hand. You catch the extension with the hand that was holding the crossbar. When you get good at this, the extension will never touch the water.
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- The boom is very low to the tramp ( the main sail is raised to maximum) and I must lay almost flat to clear on tack.
You're either got too much mast rake or you're not releasing the mainsheet in the tack. When you're tacking (in the position described above), the boom will brush over your back. In fact, I use my back to force the mainsheet out a couple of feet in the tack - something that needs to be done to tack effectively.