Yeup, I do that stuff - letting go and grabbing the striker before the boat has a chance to tilt to leeward etc (maybe my timing is off?) - but I find, once the wind is over ~18 kts, forget it ... you gotta be at 45 degrees, not 90 (mast directly to wind), otherwise it doesn't matter how uncleated or how hard you hold on to windward (striker, etc), the boat just goes over again anyway.

Maybe you're doing something I'm not, but I find, if I can get the boat at 45 degrees, even in 5ft waves and 25kts, I can get the boat up and keep it up most of the time - if I'm at 90, I'm just wasting my energy bringing it up, as it's only going to go over again anyway, forcing everybody to start the whole process from the beginning: which can get dangerous as people tire out and the lee shore approaches.