was the Lundquist regatta a couple of years ago. On one trip downwind, this Supercat 22 comes charging up behind me, pissed off because I was in front of them. Not wanting to get rolled, I gybed away into a nice puff with the 'chute flying and squirted out nicely. The 22, though, is hunting me down like a dog in the street - they gybe on my line, maybe 4 or 5 boatlengths back... bad gybe, though, as the sheet goes overboard and under a rudder. I'm pulling away as their spin is flogging and there's a bunch of yelling. They get the sheet sorted out and heat it up with me in the crosshair, and BANG! Their spin pole snaps. Just behind them is a Nacra 6.0, wild-thinging like mad, and just as pissed I'm in front of them. They start charging, really pushing it. I'm close to a layline for the committee boat at this point, so I'm not gybing away, figuring I'm getting rolled high in a minute. Slowly, slowly they're gaining - great puffs and I'm having fun, but more than a little nervous, on the outer edge of my comfort zone single-handing. The 6.0 is coming... charging... spray is going everywhere... then I hear, almost in my ear, "aww, man!" Over they go, the skipper still trying to pop the mainsheet off in the puff. I squirt away and through the line... where I informed the RC I was retiring from that race. I had gone WAYYYY deep into the wrong corner on a miserable up-wind leg, and only completed one lap of a two-lap course - I'd really stunk it up. When the guys on the beach found out they were LAPPING me instead of me somehow beating them around the course, I thought they were going to stuff me in a garbage can!

That was a GREAT downwind leg though, and really showed me for the first time how much speed there is in a little boat with a 'chute - the 6.0 was really working hard and had to push it to the edge to come get me.

Yeah... that's a good feeling.