Here's an Update to the above technique:

Yesterday I went out in some pretty good wind, I would guess it was about 15 with gusts to 20+. I had left my two dinged up boards at a buddy's house for him to fix them up, and I've only got one spare, but it was blowing so nice I couldn't stay on the beach, so I said, "Fk it, I'm going with one board!"

Well it went upwind as you would expect on the one tack where the boarded hull was down, but what surprised me was how well it went upwind, on the other tack, with NO board! The boarded hull was up out of the water, so there was no board in at all.

I was really impressed, but I didn't have another boat to compare my sideslip to, I'm sure I was slipping quite a bit and there was a lot of weather helm (no jib, that might have helped ballance it out) but I was able to point pretty well and had good speed through the water, on one hull, with no board!

Now, here is the "Ah Hah" moment. When I turned to go downwind and launched the spinny, I got into some pretty good puffs, and I was hauling butt...but the bows didn't dive nearly as much as they usually do when going downwind in similar condtions with both boards down, half way.

I was really impressed at how well it behaved and how hard I could bear off in the gusts and NOT stuff the bows to the mast. I did it on one hull and on two, just to see what worked best, and the difference with the no-board hull vs. the half-board hull was clearly in favor of no-board, if you don't want to stuff it in the gusts.

I even pulled the one board out and put it on the tramp just to see what would happen for an hour or so.

I spent about 3 hours total, just testing what worked and what didn't, but I was amazed at how much better and more stable it was going downwind in a good blow with no boards. It's supposed to blow 15+ again today so I'll be back out there, with one board and no boards, just playing and testing.

Pete, get your butt over here today and we can do some two boat testing upwind, I would like to see how much sideslip I'm getting with no boards...