I have yet to experience a situation where running dead downwind on a catamaran (F18 mostly) is an advantage. As the wind gets stronger, you have to run deeper - I think while still being able to 'race' with the wind bumping above 20knots we're still gybing through about 60 degrees. The speed difference is still so incredible between carrying some height and trying to go downwind.

At the F18 North Americans when the squall came through right at the start (day 3?) we fell back in the pack through a big mistake on the first upwind leg. We were trying to pick our way through a fleet of boats running dead downwind and although we were jibing a LOT to get clear we were outrunning them by a large margin. I think the winds were at about 18knots there for a bit.

P.S. we were jybing away because I didn't want to push someone higher that obviously felt uncomfortable WHILE they were to windward of me and I would be very prone to suffer from their mistakes.