I totally agree with gary here.

Actually the being dragged along is a way in which crews overhere depower their kites. Today, you won't see any serious F18 crew flog there kites on the downwind in gusty conditions. It does involve a decent amount of anticipation but mainly what they do right before or when a gust hits is to pull the spi sheet tight and bear-off simulataniously. Once the gust has passed the skipper heads up slow again while the crew slacks of the sheet. This is serious teamwork but when you get it right it really does work well. You keep you speed and you can keep your boat perfecty flat.

The theory behind it is that you flatten the spi once you pull the spi sheet tight and that this causes the spi to stall. This collapses these lift produced by the spi while keeping the aerodynamic drag still less than when you flog the kite. It is common knowlegde that nothing is as aerodynamically draggy as a vibrating or even flapping cloth. This also means that there is still pressure on the spi to help the boat to bear off. In addition, the bearing off itself will make the spi stall even more because you again increase the angle of attack. This setup also allows you to quickly reattach the flow once the gust has passed. Simply letting the sheet out will reattach the flow and power up the boat. During the heading up part you slightly pull it back in to keep the optimal flow as the angle of attack is decreased.

Now the first time you do this your heart will be in your throat. It is seriously against your instincts to pull harder on a sheet during a gust when the boat starts to heel. But you and you skipper work together than it does really work well and keeps you at full speed.

Actually the old addagio is very much correct. If you hear the spi ratchet stop clicking for more than 5 seconds than it is time to wake up your crew. If your skipper is not continiously snaking the boat through S-curves in a gently manner than it is time to wake up your skipper.

Work, work, work that spi. And all the skipper does is steer to the needs of the kite, keeping the boat flat, while calling out approaching gusts. Actually the crew only looks at the luff of the spi while the skipper looks past the spi ahead for gusts and boats and steers completely on feel and anticipated gusts.

Maybe you can tell from my enthousiasm but when you get this down to being an oiled machine the kick you get is addictive. Than you are really sailing that boat togeher and sailing it really fast. Much different from the lazy deep downwinders where the crew can look at the clouds while holding the jib sheet out on the leeward hull.

Wouter