I understand what you are saying, but I wish I knew how to include diagrams for this but I don't. If you want to limit the number of tacks, because tacking loses ground in cats, then why not sail to the outside where your VMG to the waypoint nears 0 then tack. Wouldn't you be optimizing your distance on a tack as opposed to tacking more times and staying in the center of the course? This is, of course, all things being equal (same wind throughout the course, no current -although sailing to the side of the course until VMG=0 with a current would still limit tacks if the current is straight from the windward mark).