Due to the comments on another thread, I'm curious which of the cruising cats out there sail hot angles downwind for best Vmg, and which ones definitely do not. I have chartered a
Privilege 39 and a Kennex 445 in the
Caribbean and neither
boat had enough increase in speed to make it worthwhile to sail anywhere close to a beam reach apparent
wind to get a better Vmg downwind. The jibing angles seemed to
work out to be a lot closer to what you would sail on a
monohull keelboat (moderate cruiser/racer). Perhaps my impressions are due to the fact that not many
charter boats come with a
spinnaker (or cost exhorbitantly extra so I didn't get one). So if you do sail hot angles downwind, include whether that is with a
spinnaker (or Screacher, Hooter, Code 0, whatever BA sail).
John
(used to
race Hobie sx18 and Hobie Miracle 20)