I just sailed Cinderella (35-2) from the Bay of Islands to Auckland, arriving yesterday morning at 2:00am. We decided to ride the back edge of a high/front edge of a low to get a nice downwind 120nm run down the NZ coast. It’s winter and you have to pick your windows here carefully. Swell was forecast at .2m, but of course swell was about 1.5m bigger than forecast at departure, and steadily built during our 20hr sail.
Yes, these boats can sail well with only the jib in flat water I used to sail around lake Union is Seattle all the time without hoisting the main. But in a swell, they roll like mad without the main and good luck pointing to weather with just the jib. With the main, however, these boats sail to weather very well even in very shitty swell conditions.
The main really helps calm down the boat’s roll down and lock her into a steady heel. That being said, we are easily overpowered when the winds build, as our boats are relatively light and built for southern California's light air. Adding acouple reefs in the main really pays dividends for long distance breezy passages.
We had a really great passage that started in light air with full sail. By the end our main was down to our very small third reef and up front we carried the full #2 jib. It was probably blowing 20 with gusts close the the 30’s, but fortunately we made it into shelter before the low got here. Tomorrow’s forecast is for gusts to 52 kts! Hello Hauraki Gulf