Well, this is an excellent thread for me as I am a relative newb to my Ariel #97. So, far I have put about 500 nms on her with horribly old sails and I have to say that I don't find her able to track very well at all, as a matter of fact, I am rarely able to leave the tiller... My best friend is my tiller pilot, aka blue bungee, which I have found works pretty well with a breeze to counter the weather helm.

So, a couple things about my rig as of today, 100% head with a non-reef able main, both of which are very old. No main sheet traveler. No vang.

I have a new main with two reefs on order from BaconSails, should be here in a couple days.

I would love to hear more details about your set up so I could tune the boat a bit better and get a more consistent balance.

Thanks!