I've seen a few new designs that can sail quite well under main alone. Then there are the boats of the design era with larger foretriangle area that are limited on main alone sailing.

My boat falls somewhere in between I think. I do a bit of harbor sailing with just the main and mizzen up. If I'm single handing, the self tending main and mizzen make it easier to maneuver sailing up to a mooring or to drop the anchor.

With an open harbor, you can find good space to tack and reach safely.

The main drawbacks are, it's hard to get the boat going under main alone and how high the boat will point. On the first, I usually roll the genoa having sailed inside, where it's good to slow the boats speed. It's then under way so there's good steerage and the main can be trimmed and pulls the boat nicely.

The limit then is how high the boat will point so I use this maneuver when a beam reach is what's needed to pick up the mooring or position the anchor. I haven't spent much time testing but the boat will pretty easily close reach giving maybe 150 degrees or so tacking.

One other problem, with the main, there's no easy way to shorten it to slow the boat. It's nice if the wind is light and the water flat. More often than not, I have too much speed to deal with especially sailing up to a mooring(which would be safely away from any other boats unless it was very light).

Pushing the main to windward to "brake" is a little useless if you're by yourself(on my boat), that would be a big help. The timing is tricky but it's everything.

How low you approach, at what speed all make for a fun challenge(if you're sailing alone...). I'm used to missing and then falling off, tacking, and trying again. Sometimes a tack nearby is needed to slow the boat.

Any good ideas out there to help?