IF you have the mainsail up, the atn drop is reasonably bulletproof. As described above, you run off, sheet the chute, blow the tack, the chute will curl in behind the mainsail, and you pull down the sock.

We have learned three lessons about the ATN:

1. The control lines can get twisted and tangled, which can make for a lot of friction in lifting and lowering the sock. We occasionally (in very light winds) hoist the chute without first attaching the tack and sheet. When its up we straighten and untwist everything (the sail inside the sock and the control lines), and the attach the tack and sheet and off we go.
2. As mentioned above, it is useful to keep the control lines tensioned. There are any number of ways to do that. We just tie (rolling hitch) them down tight to a hand grip.
3. We occasionally set the chute without the mainsail set (the racers will be rolling their eyes), and then you have to be VERY careful about the wind speed because you no longer hand the mainsail to blanket the chute for the drop. We once had to let the halyard run and drop the chute in the water because even after blowing the tack we could not pull down the sock (even with both beth and I hanging on it.)