Hmm, ok. I tried tensioning the halyard but the battens will catch anyway. Looks like the first thing to try will be to angle the battens so they 'just roll with it' so to speak.

Of course, furling it with the spin up should be easy. I didn't have the guts to try that yesterday but I think it should work. The return part of the halyard seems to be ok, but I could run it inside the spreaders to keep it out of harm's way. I'll try that out as soon as I get the chance.

A self tacker sounds expensive so I'm not too keen on that. OTOH, maybe re-cutting the jib and sheeting from the front beam is do-able. I'd have to get over all that surface area I'll lose though...

The spin pole is as designed for this spinnaker and forward sheeting, lengthening it would stress the lower leach (and its a PITA). The spin didn't seem to interfere much with the sails except having to trim them in 20-30 degrees or so with the increase in apparent wind. I'm quite satisfied with the set up except for the furler hassles.