Accidental Jibes, Sailing by the lee

[Capsized]

From the other downwind thread,

...downwind in light wind, they try to run by the lee straight at the mark with the boat well heeled to windward, to get the centre of effort of the rig over the centre of the hull., and to minimise the hull surface area.

Stronger winds and waves, sail all over the place to keep the boat surfing/planing.

And not to hijack the other thread, here is my question:

In light air, heeling the boat to windward, how do you prevent accidental jibes?

I was racing the other week (for the first time, woohoo!) in pretty light conditions. When a puff would come, I would do just fine, but in the after-puff velocity header, I had to continually head up or reduce my windward heel (using my rudder 'brake' and sailing a longer distance with the first measure, dragging my mainsheet in the water with the second) to prevent accidental jibes due to gravity. About 5-6 boat lengths from the downwind finish, I goofed, and ended up accidentally jibing onto port. Fortunately, I wasn't too close to any competitors at the time, and didn't suffer any right of way issues. I'm just wondering if there is a best practice to preventing accidental jibes when sailing by the lee in light air.

PS. I finished 3rd (of 8 boats).

 

[AlanD]

Let the mainsheet out well beyond 90 degrees, so that the boom is falling forward and restrained from going further by the mainsheet.

 

[laserxd]

Let the main out past 90 degrees, you'll probably have to push it out in really light winds, keep the boat healed to windward to keep the mainsheet out of the water, use your weight to help steer and use less helm.

 

[Capsized]

I'll try that, thanks!