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!