In addition to what Tom said about the mainsail, if I'm in waves like that I like to keep as much steerage as possible by keeping the speed up. I'm sure there is a speed limited posted so that may limit you.

I was curious about the cut so I looked on Google maps. What is with the floating cottages on Horseshoe Pond? I've never seen anything like that. It looks like there are a couple of dozen of them and they even show up on my Navionics chart. If you want to be on the water but don't want to move around they maybe a better approach than getting a boat that just sits in the marina and you don't have to pay property tax. But what do they do in the winter?