I have always thought that slab reefing, although not as flexible as roller reefing, is a much more robust solution as there is far less to go wrong.
Quite so, but then you have to convince your (in)competent crew to go out on the coachroof and fuck about topping lifts and ram's horns when it's blowing a hoolie and you're hove to and everything's flogging about like a bastard!
But Shirley, if you have a fully battened main, jack stays and one of those clever bag cum boom covers plus all your reefing lines led back to the cockpit you just loosen the halyard, haul down the luff and leech, then re tighted the halyard and "hey presto" the flappy bit of the now reefed sail is safe in the clever bag come boom cover? And you don't have to hove to as all the above can be done whilst sailing under the headsail, just let go the main sheet a bit to take the pressure off the sail.
Well, at least that's the theory! All though in my days of sailing big boats (or any boat for that matter) all the above didn't exist and you did indeed have to ponce about on the coach roof.
Aye, if you have 'Jiffy Reefing', where reefing lines on the luff are brought back to the cockpit, and there's no need to hook up cringles to the ramshorns.
( That's not an everyday YACF sentence! )
You have better ginpalaces than I ....
In the interests of Full Disclosure, I'll state my data point of incompetence:
I'm only an RYA Day Skipper, with rather modest real-world experience.
I have skippered only modest vessels ( 36 ft ) and only in costal waters known to me.