My point exactly Mike.

• In the US the 2 most challenging long distance races are coastal, and run at a time of year when a thermal sea breeze is quite likely to develop.
• This is why being able to close reach is important - you are not going to be sailing close hauled or on a dead down wind run if you are tracking paralell to a long, fairly straight coastline in thermal sea breeze conditions.
• This is why the F-18s have an advantage over the Nacra 20 in this type of condition.
• Anyone seriously suggesting maxing the downhaul and rotating the mast back on a wing mast rig when double trapped in 15 knots of breeze? The result is likely going to be expensive. An old school mast of equal cross sectional weight can be made stronger in the minor axis than a wing mast - and hence you can get away with making these moves on a Tiger rig.
• Max down haul / rotated back = spilling a lot from the top. This depowering is in addition to raising boards, traveling down a little etc.
• So the Tiger has an extra trick in the play book when depowering in wind conditions that are reasonably likely to be encountered at some point in one of these races. The wing mast F-18s will have to drop more traveller earlier. This eventually leads to the transition where 3 sail reaching no longer pays because the slot at the back of the kite is pinched off when you are travelled down a long way.
• She/he who can keep the traveller more centered for longer when reaching with the kite will be faster and will make the kite work for longer before having to drop it and jib reach.

I'm not suggesting an F-18 is going to be faster than a Nacra 20 running down wind in huge air. I would suggest that on average it may be better suited to coastal distance racing with reasonable sea breeze (reaching conditions). Which conditions are you likely to see on average on these races?

Chris.