-1- Was answered in my earlier posting. No issues so far and I think we have close to 100 spi equipped taipans sailing around for many years now. Indeed, not a single failure directly attributable to the spinnaker. We have had no shortage or rough weather at our events and events like Texel, the Alter Cup, Alter Cup qualifier etc.

-2- None in the way of technical problems that I know of. Personally, I would replace the original jib with a selftacker as soon as possible. That tramp sheeted jib in simply in the way for proper spi handling and reduces the space on the tramp to unacceptable levels when sailing 2-up. The difference is very significant.

-3- With regard to spinnaker usage I think the boat/hulls perform better with the spi up in all conditions expect the extremely light winds where the spi won't fill. I found the boat to be less dive happy under spinnaker then the orginal version. The only possible exception could be where you overtake steep ways at speed where the non-spi boat would be travelling with the waves at the same speed. In fact the volume of the bows is too little to overtake significant waves at large speeds, The bows want to dig in too much and the mainbeam is a little low on the platform (I have raised my by 25 mm and that makes a difference). However I venture that the orgininal Taipan has the same issues when it has enough power to overtake the same ways with speed and so this difference can only be associated to the spinnaker in he way that it is easier to up up sufficient speed with it to get in these situations. Apart from that the spi Taipan is the same in good and bad points as the standard Taipan, both are a bit tricky when rounding A-mark and going from upwind to a beam reach.

So I would take note of three things :

-1- replace the orginal jib with a selftacker
-2- mind to not put to much weight on the boat with regard to not having the low mainbeam catch waves to often.
-3- Be prepared to learn to ride the waves with skill and care in wave-overtaking conditions. Newer F16's are more forgiving in this.

All issues that I personally could and can live with very well. I really like my boat and in the light stuff she really fast when the modern hullshapes can't really lift their luff hulls out of the water. So she has strong points as well.

Wouter