Hey guys,

I recently picked up Rick White's Cat Sailing for the 90's... I got to downwind section, don't remember the page number, but he talks about two methods of sailing downwind.
The first being set the sails for the course and then steer to keep the tell tales going.
The second was keep the bridle wind vane 90 degrees to the boat and adjust the sails.
The thing I don't get is how is the second method different, if you keep the boat 90 degrees to the wind then your sails shouldn't need to be adjusted right, you are just staying on a beam reach which is what the first method is. I know i'm missing something, been a great book so far.