Best bet is to try sailing against other boats.
We have big fleets of Waves racing twice a week in a number of clubs.
Results: Sailing straight for the mark pays off almost every time (tacking off may get you in different wind where you could do better.., or you could do worse)
Sailing slight angles downwind can be of moderate benefit, but not much.
Angles of 45-degrees will lose you lots of boats.
That is why the official class course is a triangle, windward leeward; thus giving you two upwind legs, two reaches and only one downwind leg.
And we are toying with the idea of a course with no downwind legs.

The optional jib system by Hobie is not functional. The reason is that there is no way to tension the luff of the jib. And the spinnaker also does not work.

After a year or so of experimentation, I was able to get a lot more speed out of the Wave with the Hooter. You can go to www.waveclass.org where you will see a full story on it. I was actually able to make pretty good time downwind by tacking at angles with this configuration.
Good luck,
Rick