Interesting. My gut instinct would be to have the vang off upwind so I could dump the mainsheet (or at least ease) to add some twist in the puffs/gusts. If you think about the first action you need to take in a broach under a kite it is to dump the vang to take pressure out of the top of the main.I had something like this happen in a race Saturday. We started with winds12 gusting to 15. About 1/4 mile after another boat and I rounded the last leeward mark the wind shot up to 20 with gusts to 25.
The picture below was taken right after a gust. You can see we both have our mainsails eased-I’m in the rear boat and I had the vang down hard and the main sheet and traveler were both dumped.
The Catalina seemed to handle it better. I think the reasons are:
1. They are better sailors and do great in heavy wind.
2. They have a smaller jib (110, mine is a 135),
3. A Catalina 270 is a lot heavier than an S2 7.3.
They finished 3rd and I was a ways back in 4th.
View attachment 220261
It is hard to tell but it looks like they have more twist in both the main and jib.