OzOne wrote:
Call me a braggard ...but...
We won a heat of an Oz champs in dinghys in conditions that built
quickly from around 25 at the start to 35+ after only a few minutes.
It was hard work but managable..we were a full leg ahead by the top
mark the second time..carried a kite on both downwind legs then backed
off and cruised to victory.

Sounds like a lot of fun. How did you get so far ahead? Were you worried
about anything breaking? I've had that happen.

In our case, it was simply time in the boat. I had spent probably 3X as
much time sailing that particular boat than any of the others, and had a
much better sense of when to pinch and when to foot in the chop. The
others learned fast though.

It's always fun to arrive at the top mark in a big breeze and see who
goes to work and who starts worrying. Most of the time I just go for it,
but once in a while in the Lightning we said "Let's wait and not set
the spinnaker until the traffic thins out after some of the others have
capsized."

Fresh Breezes- Doug King