Carl,

When we pushed off I half expected the boat to break up in the middle of the bay. We were out in winds of 18-20k and had the sails deeply reefed. The thing was actually very comfortable to sail. Since this is only the second one to be built of this design, there were several things that the boatbuilder was still sorting out in his shop during construction. (Then, we had to make a few more modifications on water's edge prior to the launch.)

Tacking (or, as they call it with the proa, "shunting") is not a manuver that takes mere seconds. The process takes closer to a minute. Not gonna win many races that way