I have the answer on how to handle survival conditions -- go out on a Wave and enjoy the hell out of it.
I remember a while back we were racing Waves in gusts to 45 mph at Lake Eustis. Downwind I was wishing for a longer bow.
Normally downwind you aim the Wave for the leeward mark. But, in those conditions you tacked downwind, sail all the way out. When a big puff hit, instead of heading down, like in a high-tech cat, you headed up to dump the air entirely. And when jibing, try to wait of a lull, and after coming about, instead of heading down for stability, do the same thing by heading up and dumping all the wind.
Upwind was just plain fun.
Rick
when the wind was too strong for the first day of midwinters last weekend in pensacola we did some round robins on the waves Kirk had on his beach. Crazy fun. Wish I had the knowledge to tack a little downwind (I confirmed with Kirk beforehand about the DDW approach). I clocked 11kn downwind. I tried to get forward once but was soon corrected by the bows. Upwind it was fun- had to stay on top of things. You should have seen the waves on a downwind start in a 35kn puff!
