I personally don't consider carbon spi poles much of an advantage in relation to alu ones. Weight savings are in the order of 500 grams at max and the cost is considerable higher. I personally use a simple not anodized pole of about 20 AUS$ and that works great. Anodizing makes it look better but isn;t necessary. Carbon looks cool and saves a few grams.

Both carbon and alu are allowed under F16 rules, as John already answered.

My pole wires are made of dyneema (spectra ?) lines and work well. I have not problems with it. Cheap simple and effective. As often seen on tornado's ou can drill little holes in your bows, fill them with resin and filler to make the holes strong, robust and watertight. Run the line through the hole and tie a figure 8 knot in the end. When the holes are not to wide these should hold and they held on my boat (P18) for three years already.

On the pole. I would fit one eyestrap on top near the end and fit a small pully with spring to it. This will be your tack yaryard pully. The pole support wires will just be run through this eyestrap and back down the other side of the pole and be tied of to itself maken a loop running the eyestrap. This puts no extra forces on the eyestrap and gives the lines a good curve radius retaining strenght and preventing wear.

I personally use a loop in the lines and push the entire loop through the eyestrap round the pole and than run the other end of the line through the loop itself. The loose that I'm left with I then run through the hole in the bows and tie a figure 8 knot in it. But then again I can leave the pole rigged during the whole summer as I have beach site boat parking.

I will use a different system for my new boat, something I learned from my kiting days. A quick release and fixing system. Really simple but complex to explain in words.

If you fit support line to the middle of the pole than you can get away with a light alu pole.

Prebend, just a little. enough to make sure that the pole will not buckle downwards when loaded. Lift the boat by the pole and see how the pole behaves that should be a pretty good test.

Wouter