I don't have reef points in the sail, instead I have to pull the boom away from the mast and start twisting it to wrap the main sail around the boom. The problem I was having was the clip for the topping lift was catching on the boom as it twisted around. Here's the problem:
You can see how the end of the hook would get caught when twisting the boom, I needed some way to make the twisting of the boom easier. I figured if I could attach a small piece of stainless steel (aluminum might not stand up to the stress) to the existing end-of-boom-sheeting, then attach the topping lift to that, I could keep it from hanging up while twisting. I haven't found a good local source of just random scraps of metal, so I went to the local hardware store and started wandering the isles. I found a u-bolt that had a flat piece of metal that looked like it would work.
I picked up a small stainless steel carradge bolt and lock nut, which I used to connect the flat piece of stainless to the factory end-of-boom-sheeting arrangement.
With the rounded head of the carriage bolt rubbing against the end of the boom instead of the topping lift clip, the main now reefs easily without any kind of hangup.
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