I sailed in the same regatta as Rolf and the waves where big! I sailed in the Hobie 16 class and we had a great time in the waves. People where nocked off the boats, capsized and some boats even reefed the main but when we got to the shore after a day of racing it was smiles everywhere!

When you sail downwind with the Hobie 16 in high winds you should NEWER sail dead downwind, you are dead meat in that situation. You should always have the wind at 90 deg so you can depower. If you sail dead downwind you can't depower. When you release so much mainsheet that the mainsail hit the shrouds you are out of control.

We had several situation where we where surfing down the waves and started to stuff the bow but since we had the wind at 90 deg we could depower and control the situation.

/håkan