The question that keeps nagging at me is: WHY would anyone want to voluntarily go out in winds that strong? What is the point? Maugan seems to be looking for the thrill of speed. However, as experts have said on this forum before, beach cats have a maximum hull speed and they cannot go faster, no matter how much more wind you have. And when the wind is too strong to hold the boat down, you probably are actually going slower than the maximum speed of which the boat is capable. And if you load more people (weight) on the boat to hold it down, the stress will probably break your rig.

So what's the point of the whole thing? It does not so much test the limits of the sailors' abilities as it tests the limits of the boat and teaches you how far you can push it before it breaks. And that is an expensive, potentially dangerous test.