Eric..

I see the proper course issue on courses with mono's and cats.

on a small boat race course... an A Cat and say a Lightning (cause they think only they know the rules and they outnumber you) will have an issue with a cat overtaking doing the wild thing from well outside the two boats and forcing the lightning to come up to a reaching angle from dead down.... (or more likely do lots of yelling about your proper course)

YMMV as to the value of forcing the lighting to come up and let you by....


The other case is in a mixed fleet of cruising monohulls.... same deal.... you have all the rights in the world... sailing your hot angle at twice the speed... HOWEVER... the death zone wind shadow of the big mono and their hundreds of feet of cloth make this move silly... It won't be fast and you could die because the physics of lead moving through the water trump the rule book. When in doubt... far better to luff the chute... take the transom and continue on...