That was some hairy mess at the NAs in '03. I crewed for Garland Ayscue. We had the boat headed pretty much dead downwind, main out/jib blanketed. It felt okay. Gybing was the scary part. We're zooming up on C mark (gate?), other boats are crashing and cartwheeling all around and we have to decide how to get from starboard gybe to port. Tried the technique where you travel in/sheet in the main to present a small sail area and then "flick" the sail to the other gybe. Uh ... nice theory. We tumbled and got a Rehobeth Bay mud souveneir for our trouble. Major hero points to anyone who finished that race (like those Brazilian guys?).

A few years ago the weather man scheduled a nor'easter for the weekend of our points regatta at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. A couple of H16s and an A Cat(!) sacked up and headed out. Wind was not as strong as at Delaware but the waves were huge. Crashed when I tried to gybe. I think the technique where you actually head up and tack vs. a gybe would have worked. No way at Delaware though, come up a little off of DDW and it was instant death roll.