Hi, LaDonna. Good to hear from you.

The Wauquiez 47 has a reputation as a being a solid boat that "blasts through". I haven't sailed on one in a lot of years, but I recall that they depend on a large foretriangle sail in light air. Obviously you have the normal issues of changing down the foresail from (say) a 130% genoa to a working jib. That's easy to say ashore, harder to do with two on the boat (or if the sail is wet, needs to be blocked and stored below,etc.).

We've found that sailing a large(r) boat was originally daunting. We had this experience when we went from a Pearson 35 to a Sabre 42. After 11 years, we went to our current J/160 that we have had since 1998. Both the Sabre and J/boat had all the working and reefing lines come back to the cockpit. Both have decent side-deck areas; and, both had relatively smaller foretriangles to work with. Our working sails on the J/160 are a 100% jib, a 2,000 SF spinakker, and our (almost) 1,000 SF main. (We've never used the storm trisail or storm jib.)

As you noted, working on technique is important, especially when sailing shorthanded. Using a smaller headsail, reefing early, making sure you have a flat reef in the main, tensioning the backstay, using a proper boom vang, etc. For gybing, in heavy air you might consider a "chicken gybe" (going through the wind, rather than a typical gybe) -- however, in some seas the "chicken" might take more courage if you have too much sail up (no reef, too big a headsail, waves too square, etc.)

We found that backing-off the main a bit by easing the traveller, keeping it very flat, makes a big difference in both the helm and the angle of heel when going to weather. If you have a lot of lee or weather helm to keep the boat in line, then you really should adjust that out. If you notice that your COG isn't matching your Heading, then you get an immediate clue to adjust things.

As for the seaway beating you up: We've had a number of extended beats (say 24=30 hours in short square waves, going to weather in 25 knot (sustained) true wind. When the apparent wind is over 35 knots of snotty, cold, wind in your face -- it gets a bit old in a few hours. ;^))). In your case, the Pacific is a lot less friendly if you add a big swell running at a different direction on top of your normal wind pattern. Seastate has a lot to do with how any boat handles -- especially upwind or in "bigger" waves.

The Open 70's, don't generally go to weather. They GO with relatively little sail in big winds. If you often see them in the Southern Ocean videos, they are usually deeply reefed with small canvas up front. The reality is that extened periods going to weather in crappy seas is draining. (Who skis down shoulder high, platform moguls, with a double fall line all-day -- and all of a night, then more for "fun"?)

Occaisionaly because of circumstances, bad choices, or whatever, we end-up in a shitty seaway and just slam into it. It's then, when you go below, strip off portions of you wet gear, look in a mirror and ask yourself if you're having fun yet? The only worse thing is looking at your less tolerant crew or family members and wondering if you should have them enduing the experience.

I'm not one of the true "open ocean" sailors who post here. Brian W, for example, has all but "gone around" twice, might weigh in. I think that there are certain slogs that you should just decide to avoid (like going from Mexico to San Francisco) if you are planning of keeping to any sort of compressed schedule.