No-win situation? A tough downwind strategy choice

[@johnandrews2853]

Marginal planing conditions... you did 115 mm (measured on the screen) across the water. Dead run straight line would have been 38 mm. So to make the VMG pay you would have to have averaged 115/38 times faster (about 3 times faster) than you could have gone on a dead run. On my Comet Trio if there is not enough wind, and I can't plane all the time, It is usually just as quick and often quicker to goosewing the kite and run dead downwind.... when there is loads of wind then your gybes downwind could have been much deeper.