Converting from Barton boom reefing

[roughbert]

Recently acquired a 7m yacht (Islander 23) with Barton boom reefing. The OP had never reefed the sail, nor is there a key to turn the boom. So I assume that the roller reefing has gone South. To convert the existing mainsail, which has a bit of life left in it, it would need reefing eyes x4 or x6 and one for the Cunningham, which is not present. And single-line reefing paraphernalia on the boom, etc. But is there anything horrible about the cut of a roller boom mainsail which will defeat the object of the exercise? Any other related observations also welcome.

 

[VicS]

I converted from the Barton roller reefing to a slab reefing system many years ago.
I got a sailmaker to put a couple of rows of reefing points in the sail
Fitted a Barton slab reefing kit to the boom and made a pair of "ram's horn" hooks for the tack.
Added a decent kicker, vang or whatever you want to call it.
Nothing "horrible".
I keep the old roller system in working order in case l want to use it.

 

[Ardenfour]

Ditto. Had mine converted few years ago. 3 reefing points, sliding blocks on a track on the boom, Double ramshorn at the gooseneck. Make your mainsail loose-footed while you're at it. Simple tackle for vang.

 

[Stemar]

Ditto, except I bought the bits and did it myself.

and

on each side of the boom and a block at the gooseneck, up through the cringle and back down to a cleat. Repeat for the other reef.

Worth thinking about bringing the lines aft, as it's really nice not to have to go forward to put a second reef in on a small boat, but that starts to get expensive unless you can find second hand bits.