[bob_walden]

Wow, great story. But something is confusing this newbie. You said:

"The force of the wind was so strong that to do a jibe we had to take down the Mainsail, and pull the boom over and then raise the mainsail again ob the new side."

Now, any boat I''ve been on (a handful, admitedly), I''d never be able to do this with the wind behind. There''d be too much pressure on the sail lugs or boltrope to move the main up or down. I have always gone at least partly head-to-wind to drop or raise the main. How does one drop/raise with strong winds astearn?

I would have thought that "chicken-jibing" would be the way to go in this situation--but then, I''m a newbie.

bw