My suggestion would be firmly against the hydraulic version. Apart from the extra expense there is the complexity in fitting and operating that is not necessary. Our version has the reefing
rope drum hidden in the rear of the boom and so looks tidy and is a genuine one person operation.
Prices seem rather high. It was three years ago but my boom was NZD20k (12k Eur), sail by Doyle’s NZD12k (7k Eur), 7 batten but cheaper material, Dacron? Vang 1500 Eur.
Fitting was about 8k Eur. Cost included
mast taken down. My neighbor in L440 had his fitted with mast in place. No need to fit a snubber on L450F as the
rope tension (reefing line up,
halyard down) is fairly light and I just put one turn around the mainsheet
winch and let it run through my hand.
Sail down to NZ [emoji16], May be cheaper here and KZ
Marine are the original designers.
When I read the reefing problems on the other thread I
recall how difficult the old reefing was, the tangled and stressed lines.
Cheers, Dave