In Boom Reefing Options?

[Wandering Toes]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of a refit of our mast and boom this spring. I brought the boom home and have it hung in my workshop so as to easily work on it. What I thought would be a simple restring project is turning messy and I'd like some advice.

It seems the original internal Auto-reef cars had been replaced with back-to-back blocks that had gotten tangled up inside the boom. I currently have everything removed from the boom and am ready to put it all back together. I checked with Rigrite and they no longer carry the original cars. My question is, can I simply ditch the internal cars and run a single line reefing inside the boom? All the line runs and boom end blocks are right to accept this type of a reefing line run back to the cockpit where a cabintop winch can be used if needed to help with reefing. The reef lines would be strung around 6 blocks in the process which I would imagine could only help with the loads. That messy internal car reefing shuttle seems to only add two more block turns and adds tons of complexity that seems unnecessary.

The mast and boom are Isomat which for all the complaints online seem to be pretty solid and user friendly.

Has anyone had experience removing the internal reefing cars and just using one line? Good or bad? Peanut gallery?

The boat is a Hunter Legend 35.5.

Thanks for any ideas you all may have!