I am with Mr Duff on this, in the main. Reefing hooks are a huge pain since you need the luff a bit slack when hooking on and then you need to hold the cringle in place since the sail is flogging and the boat is hopping - unless you only reef in calm weather - while tensioning the halyard which takes two more hands to tail while cranking so there you are three hands and teeth all fully engaged while all the water coursing down the sail is funneled to the tack and past the wrist gauntlet on your oilies . . .
Reefing hooks should be removed.
I like a simple pendent permanently spliced to the reefing tack cringle. If you handle the halyard from the mast, the pendent need be no longer than reachable - i.e. first reef to full, second reef reachs to first, etc. If you handle the halyards from the cockpit, as I do with Marmalade's massive gaff main, then the reefing lines need to be within reach there.
Either way, I've not bothered with the tack lines going side to side as I get a better set if I can bring the cringle down a bit lower, albeit a tad to one side, than where it would end up stacked up on the sail slides or hoops. The clew lines, on the other hand, should be 2:1, boom through cringle through cheekblock and then forward.
It helps to have the topping lift reachable from where ever you control the halyard. That way you can top the boom up a little, drop the sail enough to secure the tack and retension the luff, haul out the clew as hard as possible, and then ease the lift to sail. On all but the largest boats, this should be a one person job requiring a little skill but no great strength.
G'luck
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