After missing last week I was itching to get the boat out, and brought along a new crew member who sails on Dangerous. Unfortunately, once we got out there conditions were far bigger than expected, with breeze in the high teens gusting to low 20s. We put a spin up for practice and the boat immediately jumped on plane and jumped to 10kts. Unfortunately, despite being fast it was almost totally unmanageable on both the trim side and for me at the helm, and we quickly stowed it. We started the race under a partially furled headsail, but suffered in pointing ability and ended up rolling it out fully and I kept the boat on her feet (barely) by playing the main in the puffs. Got to the top mark, rounded, and went for a fast wing-on-wing ride downhill. Spun the boat up for the second leg, suffered about 2/3 of the way up, and I sheeted in too quick on a tack and capsized. With some fiddling and help from the safety boat we got her upright, I hauled James back in the boat, and we both decided that would be the end of our day. The boat managed it well, which is something I was quite worried about after hearing stories of other Chrysler boats sinking in similar conditions.
A tough one out there for sure, but a good learning experience on how to properly right the boat and what should be treated as the upper limit for sailable conditions on a powerful dinghy in my hands. The boat and crew made it home safely which is what's important. Hoping for better conditions next week.