If you are trying to calm the motion but the genoa was too much sail area you can put up a reefed main and motor sail. I've done this in 50 knots on my C&C27 bare headed with a double reefed main closed hauled. The motion was quite bearable and the boat just soldiered on.The wind was building, so we were gradually falling off from close hauled to almost a beam reach. We had been paralleling the coast, trying to point high enough to stay off it, but losing. So there was a good bit of heeling involved, and eventually we had to drop the sail and motor. But it was pretty rough and we already had one seasick crew, so we wanted to keep the better motion of sailing as long as possible.
The explanations above make perfect sense. I get it now. Many thanks to everyone!!