Sue,
Racing catamarans may spend most of their time at sustained speed... Accelertion to top speed is essential for this.
It must be very calm with no waves, that you can maintain a constant boat speed (and ones again, I agree, that in light wind the lighter boat is faster). I have attached a speed vs time gps track. Medium off-shore winds, waves 0.5m, Dart 18, data points are spaced every 15s. You can see the tacks as deep low speed points. But between these points there is not really a constant speed. Well, maybe I am a bad sailor... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> then again I spend better my time in sailing the reducing the weight.
You cherry pick concepts and then simply ignore the reverse effects to argue your case.
No, I don't, I think about about acceleration and de-acceleration, about light and strong wind, about steady movement and dynamic movement, so please don't blame me.
Cheers,
Klaus
