not knowing how it's supposed to look, Karl's diamond wire end looked like an "S" hook that had straightened out. He took the main down and got a tow in, so it didn't break or deform the mast.

As for the other Viper that had the mast in three pieces, we'll have to wait on the official word for what happened there..

This being said, I don't think the "rock stars" of the fleet had any boat issues the whole weekend. It's just the 'part timers' and those who haven't sailed their boats in a while that had failures.

Flipping spin boats in 20 kts does tend to do funny things to rigging.

As you said earlier, Pete, the actual conditions on the water felt more like 15-20 on Friday, solid 20 with pressure on Sat, and 18 dropping to 15 on Sunday. The wind direction offshore kept the water conditions from getting too choppy, so it was hard to tell from looking at the water itself what the wind was.

From an outside perspective, having 400+ lbs on the Blade didn't seem unmanageable in 15+ conditions, although I'm sure it was slower than the flyweights. On Sunday, I spent most of the time upwind trapping in front of the forward beam to keep the nose trim right. Way back on the rear beam with the spin up, and we only stuck it once in a big bit of pressure downhill

Good times, and I'm glad I petitioned so heavily for a kitchen pass to this event. I liked the 3 day format, even though I was in no shape to handle all that sailing!