I sailed last year on a F31 in the Round Vancouver Island race. We had to reef, fortunately only once. It took FOREVER, far far longer than slab reefing would have done.
One of my Gypsy owners had previously owned a F27. One reason he sold it was because he had to leave the cockpit to reef, thus he didn't like to sail it singlehanded.
Years ago I raced a Swan 55 with a roller reefing mainsail. We inadvertently let the spinnaker sheet run under the boom when the main was reefed. Within a couple of minutes the spi sheet had worn a hole through 4 rolls of mainsail. It took me a long time handstitching, sitting on the boom, to repair the holes.
Hope that helps!
You can see a video of Ralph's boat, complete with broken gooseneck on the Wizard page.