I forgot to address your concerns about multiple sets of marks. I would definitely recommend that, especially if you have spinnaker cats at this event.

At a minimum, 2 A marks. Preferably, 2 gates also.

This isn't as confusing as you would think, we've done it at Hobie NAs. Just make sure you have two different colored sets of marks (orange for the cats, yellow for the boards, etc.). Set up one gate upwind of the start/finish line, and the other a bit downwind. Again, clarify this in the SIs and discuss at the skippers meeting. Never run upwind and downwind finishes at the same time. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The only downside to this is that unless you have LOTS of resources, you can forget about using change marks to fix any timing or wind direction issues.

Mike