Why trap with kite downwind?

Dave, it is all about speed.

Heating up gains a little speed (without crew on the wire), hull flys as AW moved forward, so you HAVE to bear off,, but you only go a little faster

Now with the crew on the wire, the same is true, you head up (more) to get the hull flying, but as you have the crew on the wire (more RM) you drive the boat harder, and so you go much faster, as you are going much faster, the AW moves forward and the hull stays flying so you bear off (remember you are going MUCH faster), but as the crew is on the wire, you can power the boat up more (remember you are going MUCH faster) and so the boat still flys a hull (reemember you are going much faster), and so you bear off a little more (remember you are going much faster), but as you bear off, the boat is still accelerating as the crew is on the wire, more of the heeling moment (HM) is converted into forward power(remember you are going much faster) and so you go faster and eventually deeper too.

It is all about getting the boatspeed up, so you can then move the AW forward (and so have to bear off). 

Trust us, it works, but you have to "go for it".  doing this 1/2 heartedly will not pay, it's all or nothing.  Try in in a good F4 and see what happens - crew out, main in fairly tight(leach teltails help), and kite in tight and you fly !!!!

Ok thanks. I can kind of get my head round that.

But for it to work properly you need

a: A long enough downwind leg

b. To be consistently on one hull throughout. If you drop a hull then you have to start all over again to build up speed and bring the AW forward.

Perhaps that's my problem in that in the general club racing the legs are shorter than in a catamaran regatta. In a BF4 we would be wiring downwind anyway to keep the bows up. It's the BF3 strength where I think it's maybe a judgement call.

I think I'm pretty swift downwind. That's because we drive pretty hard downwind - none of this soaking down business -  and my crew trusts me enough to never dump the kite, foolishly beleiving that I'm savvy enough on the rudders to keep it upright. But I've not been able to establish any significant advantage in medium airs to make trapesing worthwhile.

Second half of our Icebreaker starts on Feb 4th so I'll give it a go. We did a lot of trapese work downwind last summer but it was an old kite and I got ribbed for showboating so I caved in. Now got new cut kite so might give it another go. It wa always me out there on the wire as I am more nimble than my crew and found it easier to feel the balance out there. Gybes were always awkward though. If I was behind the rear beam then I'd have to bear off a little to take the pressure off the bow(s) so I could move forward. The come inboard while still bearing away slightly and go straight into the gybe. What sometimes happened however was that I bore off too much, The boat would slow and flatten off and I would not only be tea-bagged but thrown forward, losing my footing and starting an impressive but unsustainable body-drag. Crew got quite good at sheeting the kite with one hand while trying to pull me back on board with the other.

Biddy

Cheers for that and Happy New year by the way. How's it going with the video from the Donnie Mac? And have you started to gee up the Swords boats for the Euros? What are you doing crew-wise? Great pic of you in a 400 on your website - get a proper hat!