I haven't had any rings break while sailing.
I was also noticing that my shower curtain rings are similar to the Sunfish
sail clips, but may be a more brittle type of plastic. Wire ties are used
by some instead of sail clips.
Initially, I'm going to try the method that Larry Brown describes in Frugal
Yachting, which he used on his lateen rigged Potter. He had jiffy reefing
with a couple of grommets in the leach only, so he could ease the halyard,
pull in a triangular section of sail with the reefing line, then haul the
yard (upper boom in Sailfish language) as far as it will go. He didn't go
into a lot of detail, but the geometry is such that the yard will probably
not pull up against the mast when the sail is reefed, so I presume it will
fly out on one tack and be against the mast on the other. I would not want
the boom to be higher than normal.
If that doesn't prove satisfactory, it would seem possible to reef both
luff and leach if you had a way to first ease the outhaul on both booms. I
can experiment with that using the reef cringles on the leach and an
existing luff grommet.
You're probably familiar with the Jens rig that Sunfish racers use for
strong winds or lightweight sailors. I forget the details, but it
essentially lowers the halyard attach point so that there is more
unsupported upper boom, allowing greater flexing and spilling of wind. Some
refer to "reefing" also, and the best I can tell, that involves bunching at
the luff, using a Cunningham. That would require easing outhauls, I presume.
I subscribe to the Sunfish mail list, on the hope that I will pick up an
occasional tip on the lateen rig.
Harry