Better yet: Set a mark (or set an A mark) 43º off the wind, a few miles away. Now let the lead mines go at it a few minutes ahead of the cats. Enjoy the ride, go ahead and pass on their lee side (avoiding a pointing match into irons) and proceed to go higher than they can after you've passed them.

You can do this exercise every weekend in Marina Del Rey as the entire recreational daysailing fleet runs up the coast. You can catch the fleet, pass the fleet, and look back on the fleet as they throw in a tack or two to keep up to your windward progress while you sail on one single tack.

The best part, for me, is watching the slip angle as you pass them. You pass to windward if you have room, otherwise you pass to leeward and then come back up to their track. As you look at them, they appear to pointing higher. They are indeed aiming their bow higher. They are actually sailing lower and have a much higher slip angle as evidenced by the fact that they fall to leeward of you.


I can provide plenty of hard data showing tacks in the neighborhood of less than 95º (divided by two tacks is 47.5) on both my Mystere 6.0, a Prindle 19, and I may have some done on a Nacra 5.8.

Oh shoot! I just realized I was on the Hobie 14, 16 forum. I don't know what kind of pointing I can do on asymetric hulls.

In the words of Emily Letilla (a Gilda Radner character on Saturday Night Live in the 70's)... "Nevermind! "

GARY