Jeff Morris wrote:

However, he is right in the case of adverse conditions. A 3 foot chop that would frustrate a 25
footer and force it to foot off to keep way on, might not bother a 50 foot vessel.

Sure.

But OTOH a beamy 60 footer might have to bear away a little and go for footing in a chop that might
not bother a lean mean 40 footer, or a racing multihull.

I had an "aha!" moment sailing Melges 24s in light air... once the boat was moving well, pointing
was not a problem. But the modern tiny foils (low drag, high efficiency) would simply let the boat
skid sideways and develop no power at all below a certain speed. The boat would tack through about
200 degrees, some of the time were going backwards! This is a case of matching underwater foils to
the rest of the boat... optimized for certain conditions, which of course does not include very
light air...

In the big racing multhulls, you see them going upwind with their daggerboards pulled partially up
much of the time. Same principle.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King