Only had two of us to crew instead of four, but with winds forecast to be 12 with gusts to 16, we thought we'd be all right.
Wrong! With full main and genoa, before the start had winds around 15 knots. Upwind we went 6.3 knots, a record. Then during the last 2 minutes of the pre-start, the winds increased to 19 sustained with gusts above that. Knocked over, but not out, we did manage to start. With only two of us as rail meat, we were hopelessly overpowered, so ended up with a poorly-trimmed genoa driving us upwind, and a main flogging a tad. On the first downwind we did fairly well getting the genoa out and with a decent angle treated it like a small spin -- performed far better than the jib would have. Wind came down a tad by the time of the second upwind, at which we were more in control, though our tacks were ugly. 2nd downwind we moved the sheets to the spin blocks at the rear of the boat and got a better angle for the genoa, and did a nice 4.5 knots most of the way down the course.
And exhausting night. Should have at least reefed the main. If not used the jib.
