I don't run a vang either, I sail Mk1 at the moment as does Tim. I'm sure your crew would appreciate not having one either!

As for my halyard ring , I have fed the end of the halyard through the ring and tied it around the top of the shackle . I attach the halyard so the ring is aft of the halyard. After many different tries, I've found this to work quite well for me, hooking and unhooking about 95% of the time without problem.