A couple of reasons why gybing with the chute in heavy air may be easier than with a cat rig or sloop rig without spinnaker:

• You are typically moving faster, so if you execute a crisp gybe and the boat doesn't slow down much, there is less force slamming the main across.
• The traveller is much more centered when sailing with a spinnaker than main and jib alone, so the main has less room to accelerate across the boat and you are exposing less of the main to the wind.

When we've capsized while gybing with the chute its normally been me trying to steer too quick into the gybe and one of the three following comedy moments occuring:

• Skipper loses balance from the g force of the turn and falls off the boat on the new leeward side, normally pulling the hotstick towards himself in a vain attempt to keep contact with the boat. Boat rounds up, over she goes!
• Crew loses balance from the g force of the turn and can't get across fast enough. Their weight on the new low side plus the skipper heating it up too quickly = capsize
• Skipper jerks the rudders over to try and gybe quickly, slowing the boat down as they stall. He then gets in a hurry to accelerate out of the gybe and rounds up to quickly. Windward hull comes up rapidly and skipper is unable to head down again because the boat isn't moving fast so the rudders aren't responsive and he fails to blow the traveller in time. *Splash*

And the moral of the story - "Slow down to win". A nice smooth gybe with progressive initiation of steering feels like the boat never slows down and "carves" through the turn. Jerking the rudders throws skipper and crew about and slows the boat rapidly.

And as Wouter said, it feels much more controlled than gybeing a non-spinnaker boat in high wind.

Chris.