Hey Ron,

...well in advance of the breeze and seas getting up that high... (grin)

In my experience, one can reef with a L-F pretty much the same we can with the Strong Track... I've always just tried to ease the main as much as possible, just as I would do with my own boat, but that's it... Only time you might really want to come completely head to wind, is when dropping the sail completely from a full or nearly full hoist - as one would do in harbor after arrival - in an effort to obtain the "perfect wrap" for storage...

You're right, the boom angle is absolutely critical... IMHO, the only way to go for these systems is to use a hydraulic vang, with precisely calibrated alignment marks on the vang...

Please note that I'm speaking of boats roughly 40' and larger, for most anything less, I still think conventional slab reefing is the way to go... That's simply my own personal limit/level of comfort in being able to handle the main by myself - of course one of the primary reasons why sailing boats much larger than 45' or so generally scares the hell out of me... (grin)

Biggest downside to the L-F (in addition to the cost) is the weight, they can really be pretty massive... Even on a boat like a Valiant 42, I shudder to think what could occur in the event of a gooseneck failure, for example, and how you might deal with it at sea... Cobbling together a functional jury rig could prove very difficult, the main would likely be rendered unusable - whereas if my gooseneck was to fail on my little tub, I think I'd still be able to make at least some use of the main...

Properly installed and used, however, these systems IMHO are approaching the same level of reliability we've come to expect from headsail furlers... Most troubles I've had with L-F in the past have been related to poor installation to begin with, or with the electric versions...

best regards,

Jon