Tacking a cat. I don't know if Bill has ever interested himself in cats other than those in his immediate line of site. One example that I wrote to him about was concerning his assumption that his were the first off the beach production cats to be made without a dolphin striker. When I mentioned the "Hydra" he confessed that he had never heard of it, which I found as a little lacking as they were a relatively popular British boat that achieved good export sales. and then there is the Australian Windrush 14 (I believe it goes by a different name in the USA), sold thousands since the mid 70's and still sells well, a centreboardless boat raced in large numbers, and it came out without a dolphin striker. So when he makes a sweeping statement in reference to catamarans that "could not tack" before his designs, I am forced to question his actual knowledge on the subject. Ever since the 60's there have been many classes of cats of all sizes racing in Australia that "tack as good as or better than mono hulls". There are several classes designed by the Cunninghams (perhaps you have heard of them, - they won several Little America's cup challenges -, that have been competing and still are competitive with almost any latter designs, then there is the Mosquito, the Cobra, the 18' Stingray,the Paper Tiger, the Arrow, the Arafura Cadet, The Dolphin, The Solo 16, and believe me these are but a few. These cats all sail very high to windward and tack up the beat on small knocks to advantage, they all race like thoroughbreds that defy any thing that Bill says to the contrary, and all of them were designed, built and had large fleets sailing every weekend at clubs all round Australia when Bill was still sailing in relatively slow monomarans