well... chevy, if youre determined enough, you can do anything on the water, Ive had to raise my sails on the water once while trying to run from the coast guard(long and humorous story) so im pretty sure you can lower your main, just turn up wind, uncleat everything and stand on the cross bar in front of the mast, and with a lot of grunt work i bet you could pop the bead out and lower the sail(be prepared to get wet... also wouldnt be a bad idea to secure yourself to the boat if solo... just in case)