[Rhodes22-list] the Crawford adventure begins (for a change ofpace)

[FCrawford0707 at aol.com]

Wally - We used about 15 gallons altogether.  A question / comment on  the 
IMF - We were sailing along downwind  toward Herirng Bay, first in  pretty light 
winds, so we had full genoa out, as well as full main, jibing a  couple of 
times to keep our wind angle at about 120 degrees, which kept the  genoa 
drawing.  As the wind piped up, we furled the genoa, and under main  alone were 
surfing a bit and making great VMG, as we were  heading  straight toward the 
destination, almost directly downwind,  with the main to starboard.  Life's good.  
Our problem came in later  furling the main, as with about 15 kn of true wind, 
our apparent wind was  about to change abruptly from c.10 to over 15, as we 
would steer into the wind  to furl.  I was concerned about broaching in the 
process.  We ended up  letting the outhaul slacken enough to belly out the main 
quite a bit as we  turned into the wind (keeping the wind over the port side in 
order to maintain  the "slot" at the mast).  This reduced the sail area 
exposed to wind enough  that we then furled the main w/o the boat heeling 
dramatically as we turned into  the wind.  My question - how have any of you handled 
this same situation  ?  Is there a better way of dealing with this than letting 
the main  belly out ?  
    Frone Crawford
    s/v Sunday Morning