I'm talking spinnakers here big boy! Only a fool eschews a
spinnaker on a downwind run.


"Thomas Stewart" wrote in message ...
Simple,

Your statement is absolutely wrong and completely off the wall. It is
wrong in theory and it is wrong in actuality.

Neal, before you take this into a argument, please look at a copy of the
polar performance curve for mono hulls. You will see that for a wind
blowing 5 knts or less, your vessel cannot exceed the speed of the wind
going dead downwind. Neal, now look at the speed of the vessel sail at a
150 degree angle (30 deg delta) a pick up of a knt and a half. A .583%
increase in speed)

I picked the 30 Deg angle because it is easier to visualize. ( 30x60
triangle) Now visualize a unit of travel directly downwind and the
distance of the vessel at 150 for the same unit of time. You will see
that the vessel at 30 degrees off dead downwind traveled .593 times
farther. Now, I know the base of the triangle isn't quite equal to twice
the distance traveled but close enough for this old beached sailor. So,
the vessel off the wind is .093% farther downwind and time to gybe back
to course. Now sailing a course of 210 deg, traveling 1.593 times faster
and will be back on the original course 18% farther downwind than the
boat slogging along dead downwind.

Now if you had ever raced in the Cruising Class ( No Flying Sail) you
would know this to be true. I know you don't want to agree that a boat
can exceed the speed of the wind going downwind but you are DEAD WRONG.
I've tried before to tell you the things you can do to increase off wind
speed but I see you are still living in the dark about it.

Don't lead the newbees astray with your lack of knowledge and experience
but many,many times I've returned to the Leeward mark with large gains
over boats traveling dead downwind wing and wing.

Ole Thom