It's been a sucky year to be a Wave in the Wed Night Races. I have enough wind to fly a hull, maybe 30 secs all year. I have been working hard to add techniques to use against dingies. Last night I hit on one that I will offer up.
I found that if you can almost fly a hull sitting in the center of the tramp or a little lower, your pointing ability goes way up compared sitting on the windward hull or just inboard of the hull. The pointing was relative to centerboard dinghies. Based on what I saw, my guess is the speed went down a little, but the side slippage went way down. I did not find any advantage to footing off in this position only, pointing very hard.
I don't really know why this worked. It was one of those nights when I was trying everything I knew or could dream up to get some advantage and this one made a difference. I picked up about a 100 yds on 5 different boast on a 1/2 mile leg. It did not seem to give as big of an advantage against small keel boats.
If anyone has a chance, try it and let me know.