If I bore off before the height of the puff, I think the boat would start planning on the river, and continue to accell without any tendency to pitch. If I was late to bear off in the puff,
This is soooo important, also when driving a spinnaker. Crews who don't learn this will have troubles, crews that do learn it will do very well.
To me it feels like I have to start baring off before the gust hits, then increase rate of baring off during the gust while starting to head-up before the gust had passed and increase the rate of heading up at the end of the guts. Basically I need to stay ahead of everything the gust does and recognized very early on when a gust is going to hit and or when a second gusts is on top of the first one.
I'm not even doing it concensiously anymore, it is just a feeling. A feeling that I need to start barring off NOW ! And then halve a second later I can feel the gust blowing across my face. There is something in the way my boat moves (or something like that) on which I know what is coming.
I find this feeling very intoxicating. It is like : "Grasshopper, don't fight by thinking, but by being one with it."
It is exactly like that.
Wouter
