The F-17 certainly isn't an ideal first boat to learn on, but it can be done. If you have someone around that is familiar with these types of boats (F18s, N20's, F16s) then you can pull it off. Just be prepared to go swimming a couple times as you get used to it. I would learn how to sail the boat upwind and then down without the spin first just so you get used to handling the mainsheet, then move on to handling the spinnaker.

The key is finding a local, easily accessible source of knowledge to glean information off of.