What kind of crazy rule is this?

Does anyone believe the impressive footage in Higher and Faster of the 800 is really 35knts? That is a F8!

Going back to depowering with the jib, "High Performance Sailing" says a good way to dump a lot of power is ease the jib until it backwinds but isn't flapping. You lose the power without increasing drag too much (in theory!). I have yet to try this though.

Interesting little thread this is turning into guys...

For my 4-penny's worth, I would say that first of all there is a difference between "de-powering" and "dumping power". With any rig, as the breeze gets up you want to start to de-power. This is a gently and progressive action, and in here you guys are right when you say that a "skiff-type" rig is more flexible and easier to de-power. However what people usually struggle with when it's windy are the gusts, and this is where hard rigs can be a problem (because of the nature of the hard,fully-battened sail, you get this very on/off situation. Either the main is set and driving, or it's inverted and not driving), so if you ease out in the gusts you simply start to hobby-horse. With soft sails you can "feather" them more in the gusts, allowing them to luff a little but still keeping some drive on.

Regarding your comment about the jib Jim, I used to do this on the Cherub too with good effect, but on something like a B14 (or certainly on the 12ft Skiff), it'll  just bin you straight in because the jibs are so much more powerful.

Hopefully see you orrible lot at the Dinghy show....

Yes. I've sailed for 25 years and only been in steady 35 knots three times (as evidenced by wind instruments). One of those was during a Cowes Week, most boats retired, more than one sank, and several sailors went for unscheduled swims off big boats (all were lucky enough to be picked up by other boats).

I've been in steady 45 knots just once and a sailor drowned during the race following a knock-down. The bottom six feet of atmosphere were full of spray - it almost looked like mist - which is a thing I've not seen at any other time. These are serious amounts of breeze even for big boats and not most people's idea of fun in reality.