Last summer I bought my first 16 and learned how to sail the hard way. Me and my wife drove 4 hours to pick it up and got a lesson on the boat from the seller while we were there. The wind was light, 5-10 knots. So when we got home we went right out on our lake to try it (we were so excited!) However we failed to notice the wind was 50 km gusting to 70km. Thank goodness we had a third person on board to stay flat, even with the main sheeted right out. My wife was screaming to her sister (our third) "People can get killed like this!! Go back! Go back!!" She was wearing the harness but wouldn't go out on the wire far enough to help. Also the rudders weren't locking down properly so it was near impossible to tack. When we did get back, what did we do? We went out again, that's what we did. This time we took her brother as a third, who couldn't swim.
Needless to say about 100 yards offshore he was yelling "GO BACK! GO BACK!!" Again the rudders prevented me from coming about, I kept stalling, so I chose to jibe. I have avoided jibing from that day on. We pitchpoled. We stuck the mast in the mud, since the lake was about 6-7 feet deep, and a boat came to our rescue and picked up the brother. They were a couple of hobie pros that showed us how to get it back up and take it back in. From that experience I learned that I wanted to have more control from the helm.
Well, a year later I've learned alot about how to handle the boat, but to make for easier handling in strong winds which is the most fun, I've added a custom built trapseat. The clamps to the tramp rails and posts were made from steel, and the frame was bent from 1" conduit. The seat material is a mesh similar to what is used on lawn chairs (fiberglass weave, I think). The seats bolt on in about 5 minutes - the clamps stay on the tramp. The tramp needs to be tight to support the weight on the seats, or you hear an uneasy creaking sound as the rails rotate a bit. Thet seats don't have enough clearance to fly the hull more than a foot, but I'll correct that for next year. Next project will probably be a mast float, a single-righting apparatus, or maybe a bimini top.