Willie, Bubala,

On a downhill run, 20 gusting to 30 knots, I would heave the pole overboard, go below and change my skivvies, brief stop in the main salon for a gulp of Jack Daniels, back on deck to let run both halyards, trice up the rags and fire up the Nissan aluminum spinnaker. Then get my analyst on the cellphone and ask him what in hells name could possess me be out solo in those winds.

But since you are there already, hypothetically, here's my two centavos. If you have the stones, I guess you could pole the jib to windward and run with a reefed main. Real tricky, plus you would have to first come around into the wind to throw a reef in the main, tough to do solo even with an autopilot, then fall back off and rig the pole to the jib. Easier to do if you have your reefing line system run back to the cockpit; I do not. And wallowing seas are not the time to be fooling around on the foredeck with a ten foot clothspole.

Overall I can imagine fewer more hazardous situations than setting canvas changes in that level winds, with a bad wallowing sea, alone. Except maybe doing it at night, in December, with an earache, sans PFD and jacklines. Yikes!

Yes, heaving to as you describe works well with the Ariel, done it lots of times for lunch, naps, and smooching with the wife. But never tried to reef that way. It works better to let the main run out to looard a lot, as well as backwind the jib etc.

On jibs, I fly a 120 high cut working jib for most anything over 2o knots and a 155 genoa for anything below that. I have a funky drifter of unknown dimensions, but it's big and baggy and points like hell, so it stays in the bag a lot. I would suggest getting a crewmate and just trying all different setups to see which works best for your particular boat trim. Don't be shy to push the envelope a little more each time. It's hard to get in real trouble with the Ariel, as long as you stay aboard. Go easy, but go. Just not alone!