My impression from sailing all these years is that the maximum speed you can obtain is fairly close to a reach in light winds but as the wind increases, you bear off. The higher the wind, the more you bear off to get max speed.
So last week land sailing, I was trying something interesting based on this. What I would do is hold the sheet constant and adjust to wind strength variations and shifts completely by steering the boat. If the wind dropped, I would bear off until I felt the power pick back up in the sail. If the wind increased, I would head upwind until I felt "managable" power again - overall trying to maintain an even powered up feeling. The angle I was sailing somewhat depended on how far the sheet was held in. At any given sheet angle, I could sail this way, I just sailed at a higher angle to the wind if I had the sail sheeted in more.
Seemed that the drag penalty from constantly turning was very small and this was a real fast way to sail - and probably also works well with the Ice Flyer since it seems to have no problem sailing a reach even in higher winds and has foot steering. Probably looked like I had a few too many cocktails however from making constant steering corrections and you also dont want to be sailing to close to anyone since your sailing direction is always changing.
To some extent, I beleive I was maintaining an optimum and constant angle of attack on the sail. You still need to be ready to use the sheet however in case a really big gust hit.
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