with regards to the rudder hold down it would actually lead to more damage. If you'll notice, the boats spend quite a bit of time going backwards in the waves which, if the rudders are forced down, will most certainly break them. The Nacra rudders are pretty heavy and tend to go mostly down on their own - but even with them partially raised, both the team Tybee and Ooooolala teams broke rudders as it was.

The big issue here was that the wind was moderate and at the same angle as the largish waves. The waves really weren't THAT big - there was just a lot of them and not quite enough wind to compensate. I later found out that I was using the flat spots we would find incorrectly. I was using them to sheet in and get upwind as fast as possible while crossing my fingers and bracing for the next wave set. I later learned that you have to look ahead at the wave sets and use the flat spot to sprint to the weaker end of the next wave set instead of blindly trying to get out to sea. Most of your upwind bites will come as you cross the smaller wave set you worked to get to...apparently this is pretty common knowledge in the windsurfing community.