A young, talented Laser sailor told me to rig my cunningham on the starboard side so I could start with it slack and then tighten after the start. He claimed you climb better with it off in the critical post-start minutes. thoughts? is this a common approach?
his point was that the side nearer you is supposedly easier to reach - but point taken, the two are only a few inches apart and if you have the line to starboard you'd be in about the same spot. The bigger question is to the ability to climb with a slack cunningham in a blow vs a taught one.
The simple answer is yes, little or no cunningham means the leech is staying closed up top, which will increase your pointing *
* - As long as you can keep the boat flat without pinching... It's pretty common to hike a little harder for the first couple of minutes after the start to help with this.
It doesn't make that much difference but, I like to rig it on starboard to make it an extra inch closer and since you can see where the tack is at starting time when conditions call for a great deal of cunningham, I keep the vang and cunningham tails on the starboard side for the start, then toss them over on each tack.
I have always rigged my cunningham on the starboard side. This is the opposite way around to the rigging guide you get with new boats (or did when I got my new boat a few years back).
Most other boats at my local club are rigged opposite to me, it can be fun when someone borrows my boat .