Reefed the main for the second time in my life last Saturday. Wind 20 gusting to 30, three to four foot capping like crazy, only windsurfers and kiteboarders on the lake and no crew. At 162 pounds, even reefed, was grossly overpowered so I traveled the jib all the way out. This was sort of like flogging in that when the main was trimmed, the jib was luffing severely. It did allow me to "survive" the upwind tacks by starting the backwinding earlier and help whip the nose on around through the big chop. I tried to leave myself plenty of room from shore and not tack in the gusts to avoid "climbing the tramp" while backwinding. Just did my best to make a normal roll tack.

It was rather harrowing on the reaches (I really need footstraps...ever notice you're curling your toes to grip the rail?) almost blew over twice from the jib only. After about 40 minutes, thanked my lucky stars for quite a ride and halled her out.

I don't have a good answer for running downwind.