The ratios for the daysailer 2 and the hunter 170 are very similar. i may have some insight here.
Do you have rear boom sheeting or mid boom. do you have a vang? the different picture seem to have variations.
the way i see it, you wont be better unless you know how to fail. think art of war. know youself and your enemies. if you dont pick the time and place of battle tbe enemy will.
the 170 is pretty sensitive to weight and wind. the upper limit for me is a steady wind of 15 kts, that assumes gust will be in the 20's. if i am by myself 10 is the limit.
i would easily push it higher with experinced crew.
you have a couple failures you need to anticipate and train against them before investing in new sails.
failure 1: capsizing. you need to embrace the capsize and love it. only then when you not fear it will you know the series of events that will lead to capsize. you cant prevent capsize failure until you know the minimum parameters that cause capsize failure. Youre confidence upon grocking capsize will exude to your crew.
failure 2: losing control. bass boats have circumvented the globe without crew. you should pick a low blow day, get away from the moorings and just let the boat flop in the breeze. study everything. start with no sails, then hoist the mainsail, then the jib. dont touch any lines. how does the rudder flop around. does the boat go in circles, does it scallop up or down wind.
sailing lessons miss this. they want to teach peple to pull lines right away and dance, when really, student need to see the boat dance first. After i learned my boat would survive without me it gave me more confidence to simply uncam everything and just walk around and fix anything.
learn to heave your boat. more important than reefing. i can heave to with the flick of a rudder. you can walk around and take your time after that.
the 170 is a challenge to reef while hove to since the boom is over the beam. have reefing lines ready at the mast. you might be abke to reef by turning the boom.
your sails might be baggy, but that isnt a real problem. my sails are ancient too. baggy sails will let you ghost home with crew farts.
baggy sails go away when reefed. you migjt not win sunday races, but you not be far behind.
im of the school that teaches a moving well trimmed boat has more stability and control than a slower moving boat with flogging sails. flogg means drag, drag means resistance, resitance leads to failure. if you dont like how fast you are going reef. it ok to put along with a flat reef, terribke to put along with your jib and main fkapping like a flag.