Tuning is in the province of those who enjoy racing. It is possible to fully enjoy sailing the Xenon without becoming involved, or needing to understand, the art of dinghy tuning. If you have just become the proud owner of a Xenon dinghy use the following settings and enjoy the sailing. The settings are intended to provide safe, comfortable and reliable sailing under a wide range of wind conditions.
Shroud setting
Prior to raising the mast connect the main shrouds to the gunwhale ring using the fourth hole down on the main shroud adjuster. The pin on the end of the shroud wire will be approx 70mm above the gunwhale fastening ring.
Raise the mast and hold it firmly in position with the forestay tied off around the Furler. Now fasten the Lower shroud pins in the lowest possible (ie that can be reached) hole. The Lower shroud line may be a little slack at this point.
Now raise the Jib and then apply tension to the Jib halyard. Do not overdo the Jib halyard tension. The Jib wire should be sufficiently taut to avoid any sag in the wire but no tighter. At this point the Main Shroud wire should be reasonably taut and the Lower shroud wire should also be under slight tension. With this Main shroud setting the mast will have a medium rake and the Xenon can be safely sailed in a wide range of wind conditions with the Lower shroud giving the mast lateral support as the dinghy heels (you will notice the tension in the Lower shroud changing as the dinghy changes tack and heels).
Set the Jib cars to the middle position.
Control Line settings
After the Main sail has been raised tighten the Outhaul firmly and then slacken it back slightly. As a measure you should be able to insert four fingers of your hand, slightly spread, at the mid point of the boom, between the boom and foot of the mainsail. Tip: Always check that Outhaul, downhaul and Gnav controls are very slack before raising the mainsail – if not your mainsail may not reach the mast top.
Tighten the Gnav control line firmly – making sure that in this initial setting the port and starboard ends of the Gnav control lines are evenly set.
As you set sail take a look up at the top section of the mainsail. Is the top of the sail twisted open in comparison with the lower section of the sail? If so this is spilling the wind and losing power – this may be the behaviour that you want in strong winds but if not correct this by pulling the Gnav control line tighter.  As you do so the twist will disappear as the upper sail section flattens. The dinghy will become more stable (less wallowing) and speed will increase.
You now have the best possible general setup. It is only if you enjoy racing that it is useful to investigate the art of tuning further, in which case the Xenon offers plenty of scope. If you find that you consistently come in the first 4 racing places, that is the time to get out your notebook and get serious about tuning and read the sailing books.