Actually the main reason for having a spi pole is that you'll need one when you fit a spinnaker to a sloop rigged (2-up F16). Having the Jjib luff and the spinnaker luff in the exact same position doesn't seem to work very well for some reason.

We must of course not forget that both sloop rigged (2-up) F16's and cat rigged F16 (like the shadow) constitutes equal shares in our class. Losing the jib altogether is certainly a performance hit for 2-up crew especially in the mixed racing we tend to do.

Additionally, your reading of the F16 spinnaker pole length is wrong. Every F16 design is allowed a maximal pole length of 3.5 mtr. The position of the mainbeam is irrelevant, unlike the way Texel,SHCRS or the F18 class determine maximal pole length. This means the F16 spinnaker is always the distance in front of the mast and mainsail, irrespectibly of the specifics of the platform to which the rig is fitted. This is another performance equalizing feature of the F16 class rules that is not present in for example the F18 class rules. As a result, a boom less spinnaker design can never match this setup as the spi pole will always protrude some distance beyong the bows. So the minimal distance is typically 1.5 mtr. as the (single) forestay bridles really can't be fitted to the extreme ends of the bow.

Of course you can decide to fit your own singlehander to adopt the Shadow setup but I fear that the added result apart from simplicity and dependabilty will be loss of performance with respect to poled F16's. Afterall, The spi triangle will be significantly smaller leading to a significantly smaller spinnaker with a shorter luff. Still, the F16 class rules allow such a thing as this is only unfair to yourself and not to anyone else.

Personally, I have never had a spi or pole failure in the 10 years that I'm using spinakers on cats. I still have one of the most simple spi setups using only 3 mm dyneema lines, figure 8 knots and bowlines with a securing knot in their ends. My poles are non-anodised common hardware store poles costing 30 bucks or so. I use the cheapest all metal Harken small blocks and a single Ronstan plastic cam cleat with a metal eyestrap. All systems are external. My halyards are 4 mm dyneema and I got a AHPC midpole snuffer. My spinnaker is now over 6 years old and I still use it. The only difference with the Shadow system is the pole and the bridlelines. I really don't see these as significant hazzard unless one does things the wrong way, such as using the wrong knots or skimping on the wall thickness of the spi pole.

Have some more work to, C ya !

Wouter