I don't want to hijack this thread but I am curious about the centerboard modifications. As background, here is what I know:
I sailed with Avocet this summer. We had a pretty difficult reach back to the boat launch, with strong winds and waves intersecting from two directions, slowing boats up. My boat doesn't point well, but I realized Avocet was doing worse that we were. Don's a good sailor and he mentioned over the radio that they were having some issues. He explained later that the centerboard in early CS17mk3 models was too far back, and that in those conditions they were having a hard time keeping on line. To my eye (and Don and Ted can verify or deny) it seemed that not only were they not able to avoid drifting to leeward, they were also slower than I would expect).
My question is how does the position influence leeway. I know that generally centerboard placement affects lee or weather helm, but I mainly sail by feel, not by numbers, so more of an explanation would be great. I'll never turn into a marine architect, but I'm hoping to use this to increase my knowledge of how a cat ketch responds to wind forces.