So I'm beginning to get a pretty good hang of the wild thing, while sailing one up on my 5.5 I head up until the hull clears, then bear off sharply, adjusting my weight on the boat depending on the wind.

My question is this. It just FEELS weird. It seems as if I have to head WAAAAAAAY off to keep from flipping, but when I do that its super hard to balance it. Talk about driving deep. The boat also doesn't feel as if it's really driving anywhere either. Perhaps it's because I'm to busy to enjoy the ride.

Something I'm doing wrong here???

You may be trying to head too deep or too high. In lighter breezes, people never get enough weight to leeward. In more breeze, they do not move to windward enough. Depending on conditions, try to sliding your weight down or up and see what happens. One of the directions will make it easier to wild thang

Some hull shapes are more suited to the "wild thing" than others. I do not know the 5.5, but, as a point of interest, "wild thing" is a waste of time on hull shapes like the Dart 18 and some others.

Charlie Ogletree sits in the middle of the rear crossbar of his A-cat doing the Wild Thing at speed. I have seen Charlie doing this as he ripped by me and everybody else with ease, just after the A-mark. In not even that much air.

Theo,

I presume you are sailing without a Spi.

Firstly, I do not know the ‘take off point’ on the 5.5. You will just need to find this over time – ie the point when going wild actually pays off.

Anyway, the process is fairly simple, head up (and sheet in the main and traveller as you do) the hull will then lift, bear off, but not so fast as to dump the flying hull back in – SLOW. – Plenty of tell-tails on the mainsail will help toy to understand how much sheet to apply – it will be more than you think !

With time you will be able to judge how much to head up in order to unstick the hull and also how hard to bear off to keep it flying without swimming.

The critical things are :

Steering – Smooth is the best
Sheeting – you will need to play the main and traveller while steering
For / aft trim – well forward in the lighter stuff and slowly back as it gets windy.
Mast rotation – Needs Max to get the hull flying and then reduce to get more drive and less lift as the wind increases – this may be your problem if it feels like you get the hull to fly with no forward drive…..

I will try playing more with the sheets and mast rotation if I can. It's quite puffy where I sail, and I suppose it makes it that much harder to "find a balance".

One thing I did accomplish was to bury the bows down to the front beam. Had I not slid forward and wrecked my knee (and then subsequently slid down) I'm pretty sure the boat wouldn't have flipped on me.

Oh well, I suppose if you arn't going submarine once and awhile you just arn't trying hard enough (or you are too good )

Put my old Hurricane 5.9 in as far as the 2nd Batten on the Mainsail a few times.......

It is really a case iof understanding the different transations :

No Wild thing to 'Wild thing driven by the need to fly a hull' (1)

then to 'Wild thing with max drive' - i.e. de-rotate the mast (2)

When sailing 2 up I would try and 'play' the mast rotation when I could in the transation from stage 1 to stage 2.

Now sailing on my own it's not possible with the kite up so it's just a case of set it and Hope.....But the kite adds a whole new element to the equation !

We have some excellent video of Wild Thinging in the Downwind Sailing Tape we put out last year. Bob Bergstedt and Jamie Livingston were doing a great job of balancing and steering.
Also, there are lots of other good stuff in there on WT with and without spinnakers.
Rick

Also a problem I've encountered in light air..
Sitting forward near the mast and centrally located. How the heck do you guys steer??? Kinda hard using your foot as a fulcrum for the tiller extension. Perhaps when I get my kite on there, this won't be too much of an issue

I'll probably check out that video Rick, thanks!