We’re the odd ones, we like tweaking. It passes the time, it’s exercise, and you can feel the boat going faster for it. In most conditions, I’d have the mainsheet in my hand, it's fun to extract the max from the boat, including a substantial asymmetric kite. It’s more than half a knot to us, it might be 5 or more, between no faff and flat out.
That doesn't surprise me considering the kind of boat you sail, and I can well imagine a big gain in speed with a spinnaker up, but a heavy old cruiser intended to go offshore without frightening the wife when the wind's a bit more than forecast, or even an AWB won't see that big a difference. Hull speed is hull speed for most yachts.
For us that's not the issue. Is light winds where the spinnaker has the biggest gains. Say 9 to 12kts True. Nothing else gets the boat moving like a big spinnaker one a pole with the main up. My wife is as enthusiastic as me to get the spinnaker up. She is a very competent sailor. Our heavy old cruiser really benefits from the power of the spinnaker. Having a heavy deep keel we can get away with a bit more than some lightweight boats. She is very stable and working on our flush decks is a pleasure
Theres something in what you say. Our boat rewards effort, and Chiara’s owner is as keen as me to get a move on. She does much of the steering. It’s not just the kite, a foot on the mainsheet and just an inch or 2 on the jib has a similarly startling effect sometimes. But even if we bought a keelboat, I couldn’t see us giving up the habits we have acquired. We do it on the X too, after all.
Quite so.
It’s certainly a habit one picks up from racing. I drive my family nuts with continual tweaking when they are trying to snooze, read their books etc.