A little bit of history:
Back in the "old days" catamarans always sailed straight downwind, just like the monohulls. We were sailing Sharks at the time. Then along came Nick Stan, who started tacking downwind and was beating the pants off the rest of the Sharks.

Nick left the class soon after, but Rick White was very impressed by this new technique of tacking downwind and worked to perfect it and said he was never going to go straight downwind again. Tacking downwind is a heck of a lot more fun.

However, the slower the boat, the less it pays off to tack downwind (e.g. the Hobie Wave and the Hobie 14).

And the slower the boats that DO tack downwind, the deeper the angles they have to sail (e.g. the Hobie 16).

And the boats that are fastest upwind, like the A-Class cats, have to sail really high angles when tacking downwind, especially since they don't have jibs.

Now, I know that nobody wants to sail straight downwind because it is BORING. But I am just wondering whether any of the one-design or formula classes have ever tested it (in various wind conditions) to see whether a boat sailing straight downwind gets to the leeward mark before the boats tacking downwind.

Also, does anybody know what the differences are in angles that different boats sail when tacking downwind? Like, the difference between the angle for a Hobie 16, a Hobie 17, a Nacra 6.0, an A-Class, etc.?

P.S. I guess I should add spinnaker boats in here, and I would assume they can go deeper than non-spinnaker boats, but, still, have they done tests to see whether they would be able to get to that mark faster sailing almost straight downwind than tacking downwind?