Roller furling

I bought a new to me 1982 Hobie 16. I have a lot of experience with big keel boats (C&C 33) with roller furling. I was wondering how useful the roller furling is on the Hobie 16. I will be mostly single handing on local mid-west lakes. (East Fork in OH and Brookville in IN) Seems like it would really only be useful when beached, but have not sailed a Hobie since the 80's. The jib is such a small sail I can't see it being that much help to "reef" it, though I don't expect to be out in very strong winds as we are lucky to get much wind at all during the summer. I have not pulled the sails out of the bag yet as they were described as "serviceable but not pretty" when I bought the boat. So the thought is that this weekend when I lay the sails out in the yard if they need to be replaced sooner rather than later should I also upgrade to roller furling at the same time. Seems these boats sail surprisingly well with worn out sails so I will likely give it a season or more before replacing them.

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1982 Hobie 16, she followed me home honest.

Since the stock jib on the 16 is fully battened, it is generally quite tame on the beach. The lower quarter may flap around a little bit, but for the most part, the sail will just quietly point into the wind. It’s not like a standard unbattened jib that will flog to death if left hoisted on the beach.

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Yes, my sails are completely worn out but I still get around pretty good with them. I have never sailed it with newer sails though, so maybe I don’t get around as good as I think, LOL.