Reefing Mainsail

I use a knurled, threaded sail stopper that I made for the purpose of holding my cruising main (with slugs) onto the mast so they don't escape the slot. If cruising and we are only using one reef, I just do not bother with taking the bottom slugs off the mast to make the bottom look good. Perhaps if we were really on a very long beat I might, but generally we don't.

i sometimes use the cruising main to race if it is blowing hard because I don't want to stress our racing main. In that case we do release the sail stopper and trim up the bottom of the luff properly.

I cannot think of any way to avoid this process.

I have the slugs in Mad Max.  My solution was to cut a piece of  aluminum angle 3/4" to fit the gate.  File one side down enough for to slugs to slide by (you just leave enough to match the mast).  I then drilled two holes through the plate  and taped the mast.  You will also need to taper the ends of the plate to help the slugs slide by.  It works great, once in a while a slug may catch but very seldom.  This allows the main to drop all the way to the boom.

I use a velcro strap-such as to tie down patient's arms - around the mast-easy on easy off and no holes to drill