Here is another article from the Albacore forum that you might find interesting
http://usaa.albacore.org/node/28 . I've upgraded my vang to 20:1 and this alone has made a huge difference in my high wind sailing ability. I have yet to install a cunningham and my outhaul is still at 2:1 so I'll be upgrading some more on my rig. Having the ability to de-power and flatten out the sail is so much less nerve-racking, not to mention fast!
As the guy mentioned about the albacore starting to plane to wind, the only thing better than getting the Daysailer to start planing to wind is the ride back! Last week I was sailing in some pretty good breeze, pretty much all whitecaps, and we happened onto a Rhodes 19. We were both on a beat up the lake and kind of had a tacking duel for about 5 miles. We were on opposite tacks and as we crossed the 1st time the Rhodes was an 8th of a mile ahead of us. Each tack was maybe a mile to 1.5 miles and by the 2nd time we crossed we were maybe an 8th mile up wind. By the time we were on the same tack I'd say we were half mile ahead. At that point we could tell they were pointing about as high as we were, but we were planing (mushy planning) and that was the difference. The ride back was spectacular!
The next day I ran into the same Rhodes but I was solo. Again it was big wind with whitecaps, unfortunately I was a bit overpowered. I was able to stay with them but it was just getting to intense so I decided to put a reef in. By the time I got reefed he was pretty close to out of sight. I'm wondering if a cunningham and stronger outhaul would have helped de-power the sail enough more to make it so I would've been able to handle it. Of course, as soon as I got going again the wind settled down and I ended up shaking out the reef.
KC