Ratcheting up the difficulty level

I'm not much of a gamer but I've seen enough to know that you can choose your difficulty level to make life harder for yourself. Why you would want to, or why you would want to play video games at all I am not exactly sure and I am not going to go there. Certainly when it comes to Moth sailing I want it to be as easy as possible unless there is a big payoff in speed and then I still think twice about making life hard for myself on the water.

Last week end I tried the ultimate in difficulty level. Small cut down rudder (Mach 2), small flap on main foil (Prowler) and very flat sail (Raptor) in 20+ knots and extremely nasty short chop (Weymouth Cubed) over a shallow bottomed lake with 10 miles of fetch. It was as if I had just drawn a "go back to the bottom of the learning curve" card from the pack. Some hours of practice with this set up might improve things substantially but I don't even have to ask myself if I really ever want to race with such a narrow groove that strategic options and ability to get my head out of the boat are severely restricted. Sailability and versatility (ability to pick high or low modes) are key. Any foil/sail package has to be optimised and that means looking at more than just speed. Give me something fast but sweet.