Hi Mike,
You are correct about the downwind legs. That is why the official class course is a triangle, windward, leeward finish. Thus, two beats, two reaches and only on boring downwind leg.
Another reason for only one downwind leg is we don't want to have weight minimums, and little people are much faster downwind.
Which leads us to the tiller extension. Big people can get farther forward, and then the little people only gain a few boat lengths on them. With a tiller, the little people could get farther forward, thus gaining a lot of boat lengths downwind.
I believe our class has thought all of those things out and have ended up with a very competitive class, where folks over 200 lbs and folks under 100 lbs can both compete.
As for a chute, I agree. Hobie has a spinnaker for it, but it doesn't work. I designed a roller furling Hooter and it does work. It is mounted as a masthead, and can be used upwind and off the wind. I have won several major races with this rig, beating a lot of H16s boat for boat, and even several Hobie 18s. Take a look at
http://www.catsailor.com/waves/superwave_overall.htmlI was working on a design where I could also carry a self-tacking, roller furling jib, a longer bowsprit with a bigger Hooter. It was during the Sandusky Steeplechase that I first tried it out -- I was staying with a Hobie 20 sailed by a top national sailor. Well, for a while.., then it imploded. I stopped working on that project, although it is most certainly do-able.
Guess the point is you could put a lot of sail power on the design because it has so much buoyancy. A few years ago a bunch of us thought about a Formula 14 Class. So, a bunch hopped up some H14s, and I did the Wave. The 14 does not have the buoyancy to carry a lot of extra power. They were faster, but always capsized.
Rick
