Reefing by an amateur
We've not done it much as we are pretty far inland on a freshwater lake, but here's what has worked for us in the past. In that kind of wind, there is a great deal of pressure on the sails. The heeling of the boat also makes going forward a little treacherous. So, we move the boat to a beam reach for a more stable working platform, furl in the jib and sheet out the main to where leading edge of the mainsail is beginning to luff to take some of the pressure off of the sail. Standing at the mast (we can't reef from the cockpit), we lower the main halyard to the first crinkle and hook crinkle in (don't know what the hook is called where the boom meets the mast). We disconnect the outhaul from the mainsail and re-attach it to the mainsail's first reefing crinkle on the back part of the sail; this gets done by someone in the cockpit. By hauling in the outhaul line, we've got a pretty tight "new" foot of the sail along the mainsail's first crinkle line. Now, we pull the main halyard to tension and finally flake the portion of the sail that is sagging over the boom and tie it up (but not too tightly) with light line through the eyes along this crinkle line. Finally, we reset our course and furl out/in enough jib to balance the boat's sailplan. I hope this makes sense. A better option is to go out with a more experienced sailor. It seems I saw a pretty good demonstration on a DVD called "Heavy Weather Sailing", "Storm Tactics", or "Sailing in Heavy Weather"; I can't remember the name.
