Good thing it's got 2 reef points, it was windy on saturday. 
Didn't need to reef it on sunday - we didn't hoist it! It was so windy that no-one needed more than a jib, even those with genoas were keeping them part-furled! My wind indicator was showing 18-20 kts, but I've been suspicious of its accuracy a while, and another boat was registering over 25 kts. Sunday morning we were sailing downwind, so it was easy going, although the following seas were starting to build.
After lunch I had to sail back home across the Solent (Hamble to Cowes) on a close reach with the wind (and sea) still slowly building. I had half a jib out, I was showing up to 22 kts wind which was probably real 30 kts, and was regularly heeling to 40* making 3-4 kts headway through the sea. The sea was up to over 3 ft by the time I got to Cowes. About a 1-1/2 hr trip, and quite a ride
I had the old jib on - still waiting for the new one - and it's had a small split along the upper leech for a while. By the time I'd finished it was well over a foot long, and another two rips had opened up further down. I don't think it's going to be much use again.
Hope the new one turns up soon.Nice to know the boat stood up to that and was still controllable. Apart from the jib ripping, nothing else broke.
I'm glad I didn't leave it any later to come back. Just after I got into the harbour around 3:00 pm the wind picked up even more, would have been well over 30 kts out at sea.
The whistling through the rigging of all the boats was deafening. Don't think I'd choose to go out in those conditions Cheers, Rick
