Thanks again to everyone who's given some advice etc.
Jeremy - I do indeed sail on the Camel Estuary - ours is the most scrotey boat in the park - called Haste with mankey old blue sails. You may even have noticed us practicing for the national pitchpoling champs this summer.
Have been out past Daymer but not round to Polzeath yet, surf no more than waiste height unbroken, but good fun nontheless with two on the wire. Surfing the doombar sounds interesting, though in biggish surf a bit suicidal I would imagine. Don't you get abuse from the surfers on polzeath taking your 16 in there? The most (un)radical thing we've done so far was rip our main in half on the moorings outside the RSC in a force 6, and were forced to do the walk of shame, pushing our seaweed, sand and shit covered boat down the road by the mariners in front of all the posh totty.
PS How do I find out about this 'unofficial' H16 racing scene on the Camel?