wild thing

Racers, Is the "wild thing" downwind technique still in vogue or has it been lost to modern cat sailing? I haven't seen much discussion on it in recent times on cat forums. Is it as effective as Rick White wrote in his 1990s book or are there too many negatives to the technique to use it effectively? Just asking......Deejay

All modern high performance racing cats (F18’s, A-Cats, etc) do this downwind. It generally only makes sense to do on boats that can easily fly a hull downwind. Boats like the Hobie 16 do better sailing lower and slower. They can’t make up the extra distance with speed. The Hobie 18 can do it sometimes, but is only really effective in stronger wind where you don’t need to point too high to fly the hull.

SRM, Thanks for the reply on the "wild thing". Just when I thought I had it down on my H18, I went for an unexpected swim . Trying new things makes catting interesting! Thanks again.......Deejay