OK guys, this may have been discussed before, but I'll throw it out there again. Your heading for your next mark, its dead downwind, you have no spin, what do you do?
Traveler all the way over, loosen out haul, reverse the jib from the main with a whisker pole (monohull term not sure if used on cats)????

OR......Is it faster if you were to head down at 30-40 degrees off dead down making a stretched Z pattern having the traveler half over, main sheet sheeted medium tightness.

The reason I ask the latter is, this method the cat really picks up speed and the jib can function better. It seems to defy the law of physics for obtaining the best time to the mark. I don't think I'll be surprised either way.

"catamartan racing: for the 90's" by Rick White and Mary Wells

I would think the 30-40 degrees off wind. That is one of the major pluses for multihulls is that they can beat a monohull downwind, even though they cover more distance with that method.

"Complete catamaran sailing" by Phil Berman should confirm that.

a lot will depend on wind speed -(light wind favours DDW), boat length - (short boats favour DDW), boat type (board vs boardless and are the boards up or down) and distance to mark - (short distance favours DDW)

the only way to really find out for where YOU sail on YOUR boat in likely winds is to use a gps set to show vmg and a waypoint at the down wind marker. or someone else in a similar boat doing the opposite of what you are doing

Do the 'Wild Thing'. 30-40 degrees off wind. Put the crew on the lee hull and move yourself toward the centre until the windward hull just comes out of the water. Jibe back and forth to get to where you are going. Careful, in medium or higher winds you can lose it really quickly and capsize!

Phil Berman, Rick White, etc. describe this technique better. It's one of the techniques (along with the advent of large gennakers on cats) that helped revive catamaran sailing in the 90s.

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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i have never seen a whisker pole on a cat.. but the concept is sound. some boats like the H16 really kick ass going wing to wing and ddw (main on one side, jib on the other).

many cats are very difficult to go wing to wing on, but if you have a big overlapping jib, and a roachy main.. try it