Roz & I are in!
(Now that I am recovering from shock of parenthood and realising that life might still carry on afterwards!)
I am in full support of Will's course suggestion for all the good reasons he points out.
I dont see shortening being a problem. If there is a number of laps (max, unless shortened) posted on the committee boat, once the PRO has a measure of us he should rarely need to shorten. If he has a target time for the first finisher (that the fleet knows of) the shorten course becomes predictable and the leaders know to look out for it. Even if you miss it at the top of the run, you are still passing thru that gate anyway (so cant miss finish) and by the time you get near the bottom it should be obvious, saving you going for a drop.
Peter