Roy,
I am not interested in igoring the trim of part of the sail.
Tell your local North loft to get someone out there to explain to you
why this is a fast sail (I - for one - would love to hear their answer).
This is why you pay the big buck for the big name sail. I've sailed
j24 more than a few times and I wouldn't be satisfied with less than the
full set working.
Matt Colie "Bonne Ide'e" S2-7.9 #1
Lifelong Waterman, Licensed Mariner and Congenital Sailor

Roy Smith wrote:
We've got a one-season old North main and genoa on our J/24. Ever
since it was new, I've had troubles getting all the teltails to fly
right. When I spoke to the North loft last year, shortly after we got
the sail, they said don't worry about it, just keep the middle set
happy. They said the bottom set is mostly there for the jib trimmer
to use for as a rough guide during pre-start maneuvering and I should
ignore it while driving upwind.

Last night was pretty typical. At the start of the race, the wind was
about 10-12 kts, and was down to about 6-10 by the end of the last
beat. By sailing a little higher or a little lower, I could get
either the middle set or the top set flying right, but never both at
the same time, no matter what we did with the leads. Moving the leads
forward helped a little, but when it got light, even with the leads as
far forward as they would go, we still couldn't get the top of the
sail trimmed in enough.

We used to have Z-sails, and never had this kind of problem. I'm not
sure if the boat was any faster upwind, but the teltales did fly
evenly. Any ideas what we should try, or should I just concentrate on
the middle set and not worry that the others are not flying right?