Hi, I am not hugely experienced but have become comfortable in heavy weather (say gusting 30 knots or so) even in heavy chop... in a nutshell, we get the crew in, I sit right at the beam, we dump everything (jib, traveller and mainsheet a good armful, but keep hold for sheeting in again straight away), and as we do that, the crew throws themselves across my lap and hangs onto the rear beam, pinning us both at the back of the boat). Then round she goes from beating to a run, and head straight downwind while centering the traveller and sheeting in, and get the jib under control. Most of the time we leave the boards where they are (we rarely adjust them between up/downwind) if it is that windy, I don't want the crew on the leeward hull, and we have found we can cope with the boards where they are. Gybing in those conditions is through the smallest angle possible, and usually with the traveller centered - I grab the falls and push them over to anticipate the gybe.

This works for me on Spitfire (16 feet) and Nacra 6.0 (20 feet). The key is find a crew who'll throw themselves across your lap!

I'm yet to try it single-handed.