I think that the figure 8 design would work well. I would probably use a rescue eight made out of stainless rather than an aluminum rappelling eight. With a rescue 8 the line won't slide up the side and accidentally girth hitch on it. I would be concerned about the loads. Typically, the loads while rappelling are quite light. There is no snap loading just a gentle descent. The loads on a gybing main could be much bigger, especially if it snap loads. The figure 8 idea would probably be fine on a small boat but any main with a 4:1 mainsheet purchase will probably overload a descender (figure 8) pretty quickly.
Gaz
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There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar IV, iii, 217
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