My experience with reduced sail area includes furling my jib, reefing my jib, reefing my main, and using a smaller main.
Bill Mattson and I have been sailing my Mystere 6.0 to Channel Islands National Park for about 6 years now. We've sailed 20-79 nautical miles in open ocean on any given first day of such a trip. We've been in some situations with wind in the 30+ knot range where reefing was an absolute necessity in order to keep from having to place the cat into a turtled, sea-anchor position. (Ironically, the worst scenario we found ourselves in, was the time that a 80+ foot Blue Whale crossed within 10 or 20 feet of the cat. Had we been capsized and therefore turtled for safe parking, the mast would have been sheared by the beast.)
One time we ran the trip with a Tornado mainsail (new rig, sq. top). The T-main is 15% smaller than the M6.0 main. The boat was pretty doggy in normal winds. We carry more than 200 pounds of cargo on these trips. But when we crossed though the windiest part of that trip, through "windy lane," we were able to keep the boat down and keep her moving at a good pace in the forward direction, far easier than if I would have had the full size mainsail hoisted.
As for sails made of open mesh: no way. Extra drag and reduced efficiency is definitely NOT what you want in overpowered situations. You want less profile, less drag, less lift. Emphasis should be on less drag. Lower efficiencies produce more drag and less lift.
If you have the opportunity to bend a set of smaller sails during a hard blow, go for it. Be prepared to possibly have to deal with balance issues such as weather helm, lee helm, and you would be best served by adjusting mast rake to accommodate these changes.
Reefing a main works, if you have worked out the kinks in your system and implementation however, a reefed mainsail on a rotating catamaran rig is a severe compromise because you can not get the sail to flatten the same as if she was fully hoisted.
On jib reefing: I have had very good success in balancing a heavy helm (from increased weather helm when jib is furled) by leaving just a handkerchief size of a jib clew exposed. This would be considered roller reefing on a roller furler that is not designed for it, but the amount of load I am introducing (with such a small swatch of sailcloth exposed) is not an issue in this case.
GARY
