I think it largely dependents on the shape of the upper halve of the mainsail. On the hobie 16 there is much sail area there and the mainsheet mainly sets the leech twist at halve height. I guess that is the reason that H16's tend to use the traveller as you say.
On my boat, an F16 with a medium squaretop, I find that we do not use the traveller unless we are under spinnaker and can't used the mainsheet itself in fear of overloading the mast top. On all other course and conditions we set the mast rotation, downhaul, outhaul and traveller to suit the average of the conditions. This means that during the gusts we need to shed power quickly and fully. The F16 is a nervous little bugger and adjusting the downhaul is often too slow. Both in depowering and in accellerating away at the end of the gust. For these reason we found that our boat responds best by having the crew work the gusts with the mainsheet. We totally forget about the jib. Pretty much this means that I go out of my way to keep she out on the trapeze. From that position we find that the crew has an excellent feel of when and where the next gust is coming. Right before the gust hits she lets out some mainsheet and continues doing proportionally with the onslaught. Then at the peak of the gusts she starts pulling the mainsheet back in, again proportionally with the strength of the gust.
We find that this keeps our boat flat and makes it accellerate during the gust often with a sharp jump ahead when done right. Absolutely thrilling when done right.
As the skipper I'm holding the downhaul and when she needs to work the sheet to much, meaning that she has to sheet out and in more then an arms length, then I readjust the downhaul or some other trim setting. We try to have the crew only sheet in and out without repositioning the grip on the sheet. She (and also I when I'm crewing) will bend our knees when that is required. You loose righting moment that way but only for a very short while and this is compensated by the accelleration just a few seconds later.
I'm not at all sure whether you can copy this method on the H16.
Wouter
