Top Gun

Might want to keep in mind that the leeward boat ("Maverick") actually fouled the middle boat in this video by sailing above closehauled before pushing out the main. Look at the footage again. Maverick came from behind, had no luffing rights, and then luffed up and the middle boat had to respond. That's a foul dude. A lot easier to escape a pin when you can foul to do it....

Definitely not the kind of thing you want to do in every pass back, but good to remember for unique circumstances.

that isn't the best move, a tack and then duck would be better. You would lose alot of distance by trying to stop like that the distance between boats becomes huge because of it

It only works if you can figure out how to backwind the main and turn at the same time. If you backwind, stop, then turn, you loose too much speed and will probably end up loosing ground or positions.

I see your point, but I still think there's value in a few instances. Jybing away is definitely not faster. I mean, look how quickly they get up to speed. Luffing to tack away is preferable, but I think the move is designed for times when the boat pinning you is trying not to let you tack at all. This was obviously staged, but I think the idea is to catch the pinning boat off guard by stopping really quickly and tacking before he can slow down too. It may not come into play very often, but I still think it's a cool move.

Overall not that great of an idea. Why reverse the flow on you foils by back winding when you could just let up and tack? It will take more time and energy to get the boat going on the next tack. You can see how much he falls behind as opposed to two of the traditional options. 1) gybing away 2) luffing the main and or the jib and then tacking away.

"You're gonna to do WHAT?!?!?"

I feel the need. The need, for speed!

Never seen that one before. Would that really work?

He's going vertical. So am I.