Benz is dead on regarding the topping lift. It's not a poor mans substitute for a rigid vang. In fact, I prefer the traditional topping lift because it does provide for more options with the boom, a few of which benz covers well in his reply. It does sound like your mainsail is cut too tall. You should certainly be able to haul it down to tighten the luff. A downhaul is an extremely simple thing to rig but you have to put an end stop on that track. Your gooseneck already has a bail to attach a tackle to. As it is, you should install an endstop anyway as a backup should that pin not seat correctly. There is no reason I can see for raising the boom when reefing. In addition to shortening the quantity of sail in the air one of the big reasons for reefing is to lower that center of effort so that it has less leverage against the hull. As a whole I would say hoist with a loose-ish luff for light air, bear down on that luff as the air stiffens, then reef down with the boom in that same relative position for heavier air. I also notice that it looks like the boom is set up for internal reefing which you may or may not be using.
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