ditto ... if anyone goes over in the dark in those conditions ... just keep going and call the coast guard for body retrival. their infrared scopes may just be able to find the body if they get there fast enough.
and you don't want to be changing sails in short six footers in the dark!
I would do the start ... sail an hour and bail ... macho enough.
That's exactly what we did. Took the start with every intention of bailing back up to the club before leaving the bay (not all my crew knew that though, but were happy to hear me say "home time"). Sailed with the old Dacron under double reef and reefed my #3. We still hit 12 knots! (possibly faster but didn't always have the GPS handy). J/30 Radiant Heat had rig problems (brand new rig too!) and one boat sunk. (Incisor).
I had fun, but that was because I knew where and when my exit strategy was. Being soaked after 5 minutes I know it would have been a lot less fun knowing I had 12 or more hours to go.
http://www.southernstraits.ca/results/Straits2010LastKnownYachtPosition.htm
