Having a home designed (previous owner) world sailing vessel with a mast that is bigger then the original designer's spec. It made it around cape horn and has seen a lot of high latitude low atmospheric pressure no problem.
I've heard it argued that a longer mast makes the boat more stable like a tightrope walker with a pole.
Not GP or mech eng, but I suspect something similar to the following:
Sail area ~square mast height
Mast wind force under sail ~linear sail area
Mast diameter ~square mast wind force under sail
Mast wind force reefed ~linear mast diameter
If that's right, then you're in quadratic shit. How much bigger was the mast, a metre taller or - like the Bayesian - tens of metres?
I'm curious about how it went for you?