I was this photo that was taken recently at the Hobie 16 World Championships in South Africa.
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/h16worlds/


You can see that there are quite a few boats with their mains reefed. None of them are leading the pack, but at least they are surviving.

I never really have any trouble capsizing except going down wind when I pitchpole. I've learned to make sure my crew knows to hang on when I start to bury a hull, I almost always turn out of it, is this poor form? I don't see much of an option if you are sheeted out already. Probably wouldn't be a good idea coming up on a mark in a pack of other boats. As far as heavy air goes, once I got used to sailing in heavier winds 10kts tend to get boring.

Hi guys:)
Glad to see there are so many ideas out there:) The reason I put the post up was becasue we were expecting really strong winds and I wanted to check all my bases.

That photo from worlds is interesting as I had just sailed the race before. The winds really got strong and I couldn't manage which was a pity. The winds actually only died the day after we got knocked out (go-figure)

The guys that did not reef came in top spots if I recall with the seventh spot (somewhere there) the first boat with a reef to come in. A boat got washed up on the rocks this race! And the day abonded after the race. What made the down wind sailing so interesting was the addition of the swell. One would be flying due to the wind and also catchin the swell to make one really watch the bows no real way to slow down once you've been shot forward by the swell as you can't turn off it as this would just increase the boat speed...

I think practice is the key..getting comfortable with the conditions

Clint

Well, actually, if you look at the 5th catamaran from the right, The one leading the pack, has his main reefed.

I would agree that there is no substitute for anything like "time on the water"! That saying is particularly true for heavy air sailing where boat handling is at a premium.

The purupose of this thread was to try to minimize the 'experimentation' stage which would be fraught with LOTS of capsizes! That way we could concentrate on the precision/fine tuning/practice stage of working on the mechanics.

It sounds to me like the way we were trying is the best -- sheet on hard, sheet off in the puffs when the bows dive to try to depower, steer low, and pray!!

And practice!

Hey, Peter how's it going? Can't wait to start sailing again. Are we going to see you for New Years. Tom and I will be thrill. Big hug... Marietta