I've really not too many problems sailing a Hobie in 25 to 30kts, it's a bit scary, but providing the waves are no bigger than about 3ft - it's free adrenaline; today for instance, I enjoyed fairly steady off-shore winds in the mid 20 kts, and happily zoomed along without to much difficulty at all. (pretty much always either close/haul/reach or broad - I was working in a new crew, and boy was the downwind fun!)

However, I find 20 kts in waves that are 4 to 5ft to be a whole different game! I find it much more challenging than even significantly higher wind - and it's a game I'm trying to figure out.

Last week I bruised my arm up pretty badly, getting the 16 up from a turtle in time (with another new crew!) as the lee shore rocks were closing in fast - I lost a jacket, but at least we didn't loose the boat. Winds were about 18 to 22kts, and the waves were 4 to 5ft cresting.

This seems to be a trap a lot of Hobie sailors find themselves in ... like myself, I was out, skippering in about ~20 kts +, waves where no more than 3ft, and I had no problems at all on a true beam reach, I was out on the wire, my crew was out on the wire ... so we went out into the lake for more wind, and of course, more waves ...

The wind doesn't get much faster, but the waves gain another 50% in hight, and suddenly the game changes completely, after the first capsize, my crew was afraid to even sheet in the jib properly and it took forever to tack around and head back home.

I guess the first silly thing I was doing was pure beam reaches in 5ft waves and 20kts! But even when I started close reaching I found the situation difficult.

I've heard some ideas on this, the first is obvious - if you're broadside to a wave, and it picks up the windward hull enough, it doesn't matter how much you sheet out, it's the water, not the wind, that's lifting you - you can sheet out all you want, you're still going over: I imagine this has something to do with it.

But the other idea I heard was very intriguing - I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it goes something like this.

The waves totally slow you down, which makes your apparent wind smack you broadside - as opposed to coming from the front when you're screaming along in those more flat water reaches. Thanks to this, you're simply knocked over a lot more because you're not moving as much - apparently the thing worth trying is leech control, let out your travellor a bit, but pull on the sheet to keep your leech powered up - so you keep moving, as opposed to uncontrollably spilling air with a loose leech. This will hopefully keep the apparent wind forward enough that you won't be broadsided:

Regardless - what to do in big air isn't really the question, I don't really have a problem with that - I'm wondering, what do you do in big waves & big air; as that's a whole different game.

Thanks in advance
Charlie