A photo would help a lot of folks participate in the discussion...just a suggestion.

However, my feeling is that the reef points need not be 'tight' to the boom. What matters is security (I believ), not necessarily the actual positioning of the reef point. Maybe there's something I'm missing here, so I welcome others piping in.

My mainsail is stock Catalina from the factory. I whipped up a quicky drawing in Paint. The blue reefing lines come out of the end of the boom, up through the grommet, down the other side of the sail (dotted blue), under the boom through a smaller grommet at the foot of the sail, and the tail of the line ties off to the same line on the other side of the sail. So the 'pull' is both down and toward the aft end of the boom.

I'd personally like a short track on the end of the boom, so I can adjust where the tail attaches. I too, think that a bit more pull toward the end of the boom, would help to flatten the foot of the sail. I plan to redo the whole system with blocks to reduce friction, and will probably add the tracks/cars at the same time.

Hope this makes sense

There must be some changes in the boom from 90 to 97. As on ours I have one 24 inch track towards the end. On it I have 2 adjustable tie off rings and 2 adjustable pulleys. Each of the 4 items I can slide and lock into a position for the reefing lines. The way my line runs to reef the rear is. When I install the sails the first reef line is tied to one ring then the reef line goes down and under the boom then up to the first reef position in the rear of the sail. Then it comes through that reef gromment. The line then goes down to the first rear pulley which then the rest of the line goes forward to a cleats at the front of the boom. This allows me to be able to back and down on the sail so it can be flattened. The process is repeated for the 2nd reef point using the 2nd set of hardware.