I seek a little advice from the seasoned greenbacks amongst the fleet

Whilst enjoying a somewhat hetic race in excellent conditions looking for the flat tops on the 1st leg, on the 3rd leg I had a situation which to this day don't know what to do with.

Whilst piling down the waves on this v square three sail reach with a following sea, mark on the nose, the main sheet went limp and the sails ended up rippleing in the centre of the boat - good wave - took us a long way. 

Advice I've recieved in the past is point up and keep the sails full - seems to me doing that takes you away from the mark, and then theres the problem of getting back down

Any ideas anyone!

My advice would be to enjoy it. if the bow's pointed at the next mark and your boat's going really fast down a wave, you're not doing too much wrong. If the bow keeps ploughing into the wave in front, then you might need to think about heading up to avoid this.

You describe the perfect situation, Puzzled.
I think you can steer anywhere you want at that time going down the wave.
Best in the situation you describe is go hard by the lee to gain ground to leeward - but you must luff before the bow hits the wave in front and, ideally, pull the main in - otherwise when the weight of the wind comes on to the mainsail you will capsize to windward!
The worst thing you can do is go straight down the wave as this is the shortest way to end this glorious, and fast, experience.
If you gain ground to leeward you can luff along the bottom of the trough and look for the next wave to go down.
What a nice thought in the this winter time.

Apparently the real expert would then make their way along the board, sorrry, boat until they could curl ten toes over the bow.

Let me know how you get on.

Bill

Thanks for the advice,

One of the pleasure's in life, much better than chocolate but far more difficult to obtain!

I hope I get a chance to try that sometime.

> Advice I've recieved in the past is point up and keep the sails full - seems 
> to me doing that takes you away from the mark, and then theres the problem of 
> getting back down

Why would pointing up get air back in the sails? If the apparent is too far forward you bear away don't you?

The secret downwind with waves is to play the waves and steer the best compromise to keep wave-surfing. Viz Ben Ainslie at the Olympics - he gained nearly everything by playing the waves right. In my pre-Merlin days I won quite a few open meets like that.

The real trick as defined by both John Oakley and Beecher Moore is to sail downwind using the mast as a metaphorical broom stick one is balancing on ones nose. End of problem.