Great Story Kurt!!
Sailing with a kite on a Taipan with a combined crew weight of (I'm guessing) 90 odd kilos in 15knots is an impressive acheivement. You must have excellent skills and no fear - look out Glen Ashby!
I don't sail with a spinnaker myself as yet but suspect that if you and your crew can learn to set and douse your kite off the tramp from a bag and do it efficiently you will have a less windage on your kite and won't suffer as much of an upwind penalty as those boats using snuffers (others may wish to comment on this) This could give you a winning edge. Having the skill of launching from a bag would also help you if ended up sailing one day on a type of boat that always launches from a bag or off the deck eg. 18'skiff, 49er, ocean going yacht etc.
To sail single handed without a snuffer would be practically impossible though.
Rick White's book, "Catamaran Racing for the Nineties" has an excellent chapter on sailing with a spinaker which would probably be of use to you. In fact the whole book is filled with useful information.
I enjoyed your story so much I'm going to upload it to the Taipan website if you don't mind:
http://www.taipan.asn.auRob Wilson
Taipan 4.9 AUS175
