All i can repeat to everyone is, unlike most of you, i have done it. If you ever get to the point you can no longer sail because the winds are too strong, and want to heave to with the main up, that your problem, The fact though, (and no one would dispute this) is you can sail a boat under head sail alone, now if you can sail under headsail alone, the physics of the whole thing, tell you that you can hove to under headsail alone. Your sail is like a airplane wing, and the vacum in front of the sail, sucks you along, the more sail area, the faster you get sucked along, when the weather gets up, and you maintain speed, you start to get thrown about, so you reduce sail area, which slows you, when you have reduced area to the max, and are still getting thrown about, and decide to hove to, you want to flatten the sail you have left up, as much as possible, so you get as little of the airplane wing effect as you can, and as little vacum infront of the sail to pull you along. So your speed becomes as slow as you can get it, the wind is pushing against the foresail, so you put the tiller hard to leeward, to counter the actions of the wind, which is pushing the bow to leeward, the boat is now down to as slow a speed as it gets, maybe a knot, and it becomes comfortable. If you had the main up, and their was wind in it, and your tiller was over to leeward, your speed would increase, and you would turn into the wind, then you would jive, and automatically start to sail again. You could probably do it in very calm weather, with low wind speed.
All i can really say is, i know because i have done it, and if anyone wants to run an expirement, why wait until summer, now is the ideal time, or march, when you get the equinoxial winds.