I have been asking around town and I have yet to find anyone who has sailed on a boat with the jaws down. That includes one ex-America''s Cup crew man. I thought maybe the guys who race offshore might have sailed on boats with jaws down. In the past couple weeks I have yet to find a person who sailed on a boat that rigged the pole jaws up, although I liked the New Zealander''s answer that you must be a Kiwi and it only looks upside down from here.
I was also taken by your comment that the chute on the J-36 that you race on is 1000 square feet. The normal J36 chute is just over 500 sqare feet. Are you guys flying a masthead chute with the original penalty pole? If so what did you do to the
rig to take the side loads of the chute? I am halfway considering going to a masthead chute fro cruising. (It kills your rating for racing except under IMS.)
Jeff