Switching from dinghys to yachts

It depends on the boat a lot but it seems like becasue you get less imediate feedback its harder to stay completley in the groove on a leadmine. Getting things like backstay and jib car positions right makes a huge diference as well as playing the traveller lots and lots and for some boats playing the backstay as well. Probaly not on a 31 though.

The hardest thing I find is starting. Ive been spending a fair bit of time on J22s and J80 with a bunch of other dinghy sailors and its amazing how badly a classic laser start works on a leadmine

It is hard to go from dinghys to yachts and visa versa though.  For example nailing a start in a keel boat is very different to doing it in a dinghy.  Yacht racing tends to take place over much larger courses as well so there is much more strategy involved, for example in picking the right side of a beat, where as dinghy racing tends to be more tactical boat v boat. 

I think dinghy racers make good yacht racers, but it isn't an easy change over.  The standard of racing in keel boats is also often very high as the owners have often be racing for years and know what they are doing.  Don't knock keel boats, most dinghy racers could learn a bit from the guys that race them

everything takes at least 3 times as long in a leadmine. acceleration, decelleration, hoists, drops, tacks, gybes, everything. and yet for some reason you still need to use stupid amounts of rudder. one thing i can say fr sure though, when you come out the tack point low to get the speed on and as you accellerate crank in the jib/genoa and ease onto a higher heading. but i still think neil is right, GET BACK IN A DINGHY!!!!