Your halyard ring problem IS a hijack and has been addressed recently and repeatedly.

Jake, am I wrong in thinking that the bolt rope is just a fat bit to keep the sail in the track (curf)? The downhaul forces should be pulling on the sail material, however straining on that material the tension might be. If the rope is stitched top and bottom and then shrinks, the sail puckers and wrinkles. When you pull on the rope the sail feels NONE of that effort and will not change shape in any beneficial way. Like Berny, I've seen sails with a long loose "tail" of unstitched boltrope extending out the bottom of the sail, anticipating shrinkage (no Seinfeld reference here).