[midlifesailor]

I've never seen anyone sail either upwind or down, reefed in 13 knots of wind. Many production boats, mine included need a reef at around 18 knots or so sustained when going upwind, and I did exactly that for several hours this weekend. However, since you were going out, and they were coming in, it could be that they had been seeing higher winds earlier and just hadn't bothered to shake out the reef they put in when it was warranted.

That said, the arguments given for reefing the main going downwind in ligher air are intriguing and I'd like to hear more pro and con.