Yep, but sometimes when sailing long distance races, you need to make a mark / avoid the sand...

Every year we do a long distance race from Osea Island to Clacton and back: link to google maps Clacton is ENE along the coast.

The bit along the coast to/from Calcton is usually a tight reach in one way is most years. I find that the only way to carry the kite on one of these legs if the wind is light is to be out on the wire with the Kite, mainsheet and traveller.

Small gusts you can oversheet the kite, slightly bigger gusts you can let the kite flog, but at times the only thing to do is to dump some traveller/mainsheet, but as soon as you do this, you then need to pull it all back in. (imagine you are sailing along on Starboard) I've found that if you put the tiller under your left shoulder, you can then hold the Spi sheet in your right hand and keep the traveller / mainsheet in place with your left. Big gust comes, you can bear off by moving your left shoulder back a bit and then quickly put the Spi sheet into your left hand and then let some traveller off with the right hand; this allows you to then play the traveller untill the wind settles down again adnthen go back to playing the kite; it is just about possible to play the Spi too, but not for long.

It is a high-risk game as if you get a big gust you end up on the beach and so you have to sail a few 100m offshore (in slightly less wind) to make sure you have time to come in and drop the kite if need be.