Gerard Weatherby wrote:

There's an article on sailnet (
http://www.sailnet.com/collections/a...2%20%20&tfr=fp
or http://tinyurl.com/h9z6 ) which claims it's faster to tack downwind on broad
reaches instead of running straight downwind. (Assuming you want to get dead
downwind.) Have those of you who sail found this to be true? Let's assume
there's no spinnaker since I don't have one.

S/V Cat's Meow
http://www.catsmeow.org

FWIW, given that much of this will not apply to the rest of the
mundane craft here...

THe light shcooner; a light, overcanvassed, planing gaff
schooner, not very weatherly and so needing to make up for
winward losses on the downhill stretch: Unless the wind is
strong, 25kn, a reach was always far, far faster. Sailing "wing
and wing" Only allowed the fore and main sails to operat: the jib
was blanketed, the main staysail couldn't be used, and there was
no "slot" effect. Onto enough of a reach, all four sails could be
in action, and synergising. The speed increase was considerably
more than needed to make up for the greater distance covered.
(We did eventually find out that we could run wing'n'wing'wing,
through something of an aerodynamic freak, eg main to port, main
staysl to stbd, fore to port (didn't bother with jib, as it was a
tricky balancing act by then.)

Lady Kate the catyawl: a displacement, non-paning (heavily
rockered) hull, gaff main. As someone else said, "death
roll"...so we never square run. That ensures, however, that we do
eventually arrive at our destination....

Flying Tadpole