Easiest handling downwind/light airs sail?

[Topcat47]

You could fly a Parasail with the main up, I have done it. You really have to be downwind and the big pro for the Parasail is it's ability to reach. With the wind on the beam the parasail becomes shaded by the main, the two sails interfere with each other. Downwind, the parasail is so good, you'll really not get much benefit from goosewinging the main anyway, which is why you don't see it used that way.

 

[lw395]

Your simplest (and cheapest) option is probably a cruising chute.
Tack it down to the anchor roller, the refinement of a long line back to the cockpit would allow you to easily adjust the luff tension. The two sheets can be led to a turning block aft and thence to the genoa winches, if you have no other. This assumes you have a spare halyard, which should have a swivel.

Furl your genoa, hoist the chute, out of it's bag, behind the main and off you jolly well go. As the others have said, you won't want to go directly down wind with this set up but long tacks work very well for cruising.

Exactly.
If we are talking about light airs, with a reasonably easily driven hull, then a cruising chute will bring the apparent wind forwards quite nicely and a chute tacked to the bow roller will work OK.
A mate of mine with a small cruiser bought an asy spinnaker from an RS400 for next to nothing.
For a 31ft boat I wonder how a used RS800 or 49er kite would do?
These things are out there, long after they are competitive for dinghy racing, they will do the job for cruising.