Excellent point Thomm.

I too feel that many skippers wait for the guts to hit first and then try to salvage it.

I also am convinced that the only way to do it right is to already feather the boat a little bit before the gust hits. It is now a feeling with me and I don't really know how I do it anymore but I believe that I most steer by pressure on the rudder tiller arm (not tiller bar or tiller extension !). If the pressure on it increases then I lets the boat bare off a little on its own accord. Basically I resist this pressure slightly less. When the pressure decreases then I push a little hard against the tiller arm and head up.

If you press me for why that works I believe that I must reply something like this. Every gust has a lead in and a lead out. It needs to pick up speed I believe my boat setup translates this lead in (out) directly (=immediately) into pressure on the rudders before even the boat has time to heel or anything. The spinnaker is far out in front and so its leverage on the rudder is quite large ?

However, I'm also sure that I sense windspeed somehow on my ears or other parts of my body. But anyway I do it, I tend to sense the gust coming 1 or 2 seconds before it actually hits. By that time I have beared off by enough to take the hit without much heeling at all.

Wouter