Tom, I agree with saving every bit of hoist (especially as sailmakers for the DS tend to cut these sails large.
The halyard hitch is a fine hitch, and not that hard to learn. However, there's an alternative. You ca splice something into the end of the halyard. A short round bit of metal called a dogbone might be the most standard. With that in in place, you can just tie a "luggage tag hith" (aka cow hitch).
That's super easy, but uses a trick. There's an extra step in this list:
- push a bight through the grommet
- loop the end with the dog bone over and through the bight sticking through the hole
- leave a generous amount of slack in the end of the halyard, because:
- you now pull the bight back out, and the free end now forms a bight on the other side
- you now pull that bight above the headboard and finally,
- you feed the dogbone through that.
You now have a nice hitch, like you would use for a luggage tag, with your sail being the tag and two parts or your halyard going up. One is the main part, the one going over the top of the mast and which you use to raise the sail. The other is a short free end, ending in a dogbone, that prevents the free end from slipping through the hitch.
You will want to work the hitch tight so the dogbone rests against the hitch, so nothing can "give" later. That's all.
Now, why do I like this? Because instead of a dogbone, I have an eye splice with metal eye (the one for rope, not wire, with the rounded edge at the narrow part). Like a dogbone it cannot slip through the hitch, but when I'm re-using the halyard to hold up the boom, it attaches to a shackle, which a dogbone wouldn't.
However, if you are not planning on doing that, or if you are happy to tie a knot for that use as well, the a halyard hitch is definitely a good way to go.