3apc

In the example you give (inside peel on lower halyard, gybe, inside peel again on upper halyard) you need to take the upper halyard around the headstay after the gybe and before the second peel. Hoisting to windward of the headstay is no bueno. If what you were getting at is instead how you could avoid the necessity of a gybe to clear the halyard for a second peel, getting around the headstay won't do it and will actually make everything way worse. What you'd need to do is get the halyard all the way around the outside of the kite - which can be (kinda) accomplished on a symmetric

Yeah, generally you can run two lines through the same block briefly (only needs to be done on the leeward side), then pull out the old one as you douse the old kite. Windward sheet can wait until the old sheets are below deck. If you can hoist outside, yeah, but outside hoists are usually pretty messy and it may be faster to just set everything up and barehead it. If you peel (first peel) then gybe, the second peel can usually be done as an inside hoist on the upper halyard. You can always hoist inside on a [clear] lower halyard, but an upper halyard needs to be to windward of

Yeah I've never had a problem either - just saying you can put a fiddle block there if it makes you happy. And to be clear, you only need to double the leeward sheet, windward sheet can be lead once the dust settles.

You're going to want a second tack line - a strop works if you can get to the end of the pole/sprit (or if it can be temporarily tacked to the bow and later transferred) which isn't really the case here. Not saying it can't be done but it wouldn't be ideal. You're also going to want to hoist the new kite inside, on the lower of your halyards. You generally don't need extra turning blocks aft, as long as the sheaves can fit two sheets through temporarily. Fiddles work if it gives you peace of mind that nothing is going to get tangled.

Cold front brought a scary looking thunderstorm with it Saturday afternoon, we only saw about 30 knots but pretty much instantaneously. Sounds like it varied quite a bit across the fleet - this is what flipped Flight Simulator. Wind shut of and heat turned on in classic LO300 form right as most of the fleet approached Niagara. The faster boats had better timing getting there. Flies weren't quite as bad as anticipated given the high water, but they were there.