I've had the exact same problem with my old bike. It had ultegra shifters and a 105 front derailler. I didn't have trouble with dropping the chain- but it was constantly getting getting out of tune- and I would have to push really hard to shift into a bigger ring.

I just bought a custom bike. I live in a really hilly area- and after a lot of thought I realized I just wasn't ready to give up the flexibility of a triple. I put an R700 short reach shifter on the right. For the triple I just wanted the confidence of knowing I'd be able to shift it and I had a bar-end shifter installed.

I've been on one ride on the new bike (it's snowed since I got it and the roads are too messy again for biking). The R700 short reach shifter is AMAZIMG- it's so much easier to fully reach the shifter from the drops. It made me wish I'd put an R700 on both sides- I may still do that but I need to give it some more time. So I'd give the R700 shifters some serious thought (it felt so good it would be worth learning how to adjust the front derailler myself so I can fix it if it gets out of tune).