Is there any point of sailing (direction or wind speed) that you actually let the traveller out?
In other boats I used to ease/play the traveller rather than mainsheet when overpowered but it seems not to be the case in lasers. Similarly easing the traveller in light winds would open the leech a bit but it seems that easing the sheet is preferred...
1. Forget everything you have learnt about sail tuning. Unstayed masts are a very different beast, and when you put a gad awful laser sail on it gets worse. But its the same for all of us and we get great racing don't we.
2. Unlike stayed masts, the only way to create mast bend is by using kicker or mainsheet. Upwind use the kicker to get a good luff shape ie bend the mast and IGNORE the leech. Yes its difficult to ingore the leech if you come from other classes. And in answer to your original Q keep the traveller tight at all times- tight leech at all times upwind, yes it looks awful in light winds.
Well that would explain why hardly anyone has leech tell tales! I guess it also dosent helop that my sail is pretty average and looks shit anyway.