These days, I am mostly sailing solo. I feel pretty comfortable up to about 20 knots. After that, the boat starts getting a bit spooky. One October, I just had to get one more sail in. I went out in some really heavy wind. I took a beam reach, but I had to spill all the wind possible just to stay stable. I got to a wind sheltered bay, and tacked back the way I came and called it quits. No fun when you have to constantly worry if the boats gonna dump into cold water. I'm not sure if reefing would have made it stable enough that day.

I also can't imagine sailing a H-16, without a jib. That's gotta make turning tough.

I'm gonna assume from the responses that reefing a H-16 has minimal advantages at best. If Hobie abandoned the option, there couldn't have been too many fans of reefing.

-But its still not too late to change my mind, if you have some good experiences to share.