I raced in Iowa too. And I listened to the weather report carefully which predicted that Wednesday (the 7 race day) was going to be much windier than Thursday. The forecast said that Wednesday was going to blow 15-20 with gusts to 30 (mph). On Thursday it was supposed to be 10-15 with gusts to 20. That being the case, I don't understand the excuse that PU thought Thursday's weather was going to be "dismal." Oh yeah, I was also told after the sailing on Wednesday that PU "lost count" of the number of races he'd run and thought he had only run 5. What a load of crap.
It has been my experience that PU is always on a power trip. I also remember doing 6 races on the last, and truly dismal, day of the 2006 NAs in RI. Having 4 as the maximum number of races makes the most sense, and I see absolutely no down side to it at all. We want to have the biggest number of competitors on the starting line as possible...everyone should feel welcome to NAs, and when we start losing sailors we need to fix it. At least 10 people told me they would think twice about coming to another North American after those 7 races on Wednesday. And Pat Bisesi is truly wise in his statement, "The Nationals should crown a champion and make everyone else feel like one." As far as I am concerned, that is the Hobie Way.
E. Cleveland