Eric and Wouter, great input (as always) and much appreciated.

I have a much better understanding of what you're doing.
A couple of clarifications if you don't mind...

1) I've read that some people "sit" on the tiller when hoisting with two hands (I think they actually pin the tiller between their thigh and calf when kneeling on the tramp) so as to lock the helm into it's current course. Have you tried this and do you still prefer to autosteer with the tiller behind the boat?

2) When you do capsize, I'd appreciate understanding better how to douse a spi in the water. Obviously you're releasing the spi halyard and stuffing the spi into the snuffer, but as you said Eric, things like spi wraps happen. So, do you worry about getting the mast or bow to windward before you untangle and/or stow the spi? Any other problems or tips you've encountered while sorting out things that will make spi capsize recovery faster/easier?

3) Wouter, you mentioned you don't like mast mounted spi halyard cleats. I assume you prefer main beam mounted cleats? I think I've seen most boats with cam cleats without a line retainer fairlead on top. Looks like you'd have to go forward to cleat it all the time when the line pops out. Do you guys use fairleads on your cleats?

4) When sheeting the spi, Wouter you mentioned you sometimes let go of the crossbar or tiller to do that so you can sheet with both hands. With a mainsheet I'm accostomed to using the mainsheet cleat so I can keep sheeting in with one hand but even to do that (when I need to pull in lots of sheet) I need to hand off the slack in the cleated line to my tiller hand so I can grab the next armful of line. Under spi, even if you use a ratchet block, I don't think you can do that. Does anyone use cleats on their spi sheets? If not, other than letting go of the crossbar/tiller, how do you sheet in lots of spi sheet using only one hand?

Thanks guys!

Jerry