Going dead downwind

From a sailing point of view, a good reach is far more fun than DDW, which is either boring in the light stuff or buttock clenching when the wind blows. I do agree that for racing tactics, it can be interesting, but in handicap racing tends to favour certain types of boat too much if there is no reaching to counter it.

I don't think I know of a single class that should be sailed dead downwind. If you look at the polar diagrams there's always a hole at dead downwind and the boat should be sailed off 180 degreees, even if only 3 or 5 degrees or so, for best performance. Its not suprising, laws of physics and all that. However what sailors think might be dead downwind - that's another matter...

Ok JC .. Both Rodney and I are referring to the DW leg, which when chasing pressure, catching waves or playing shifts can be pretty full on. Since I learnt more about the "Black Art" I've had no time to plump up the cockpit cushions or stoke the wood burning stove in the Finns forward cabin and on top of head out the boat stuff we're meant to keep pulling on a single string straight from the boom! Boring down wind ..... They must have the wrong boat

Solo style .. Mmmm... That'll be slurp of coffee, mars bar and back to the carpentry rebuilding the bow that some b*****r nicked in the dinghy park  

I can think of plenty of times when DDW has been the fastest way of getting there - I've spent a lot of time river sailing, and sailing places where there might be 50 yards of DDW between marks. There is no why then that sailing anything other than directly to the mark (or straight along the bank against the current) is faster than DDW, whatever the computer says.

Go somewhere sensible to sail (even Frensham Pond, I guess, which is actually quite large as ponds go) and you have far more options.