I'm a believer that in a buoy race getting back and sitting on the hull is best. Heat it up and carve S-turns to drive off the puffs.
Distance racing you can get on the wire if the conditions permit (ie sea state and gusts).
What I find in capsizing under spi (pitchpoling) is that I'm not aggressive enough heating it up ... keeping the apparent wind to the side of the boat. Thus going too slow keeps the apparent wind towards the aft ... and when you get a gust it tends to "trip" the boat back-to-front.
The challenge for me with heating-it-up is to not oversteer (ie rapidly drive off) in the gusts. This was witnessed by an F17 at PerfMidWinters ..."you F16 guys look squirrely under spi".
More time on the water will (hopefully) cure this problem for me. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
