I had a request for some pics of my jib/bow reinforcement setup, so I thought I'd post some details of my jib setup.
The first two are older pics, and the last three are of my current setup, which I'm tweaking again. I'm adding ball bearings to my homemade furler using some old bearings from the mast furler.
The idea for the bow reinforcement came from other members of this form, so a thanks goes out to them. My iteration uses 3/4" aluminum square tubing. The tubing is bolted to the front aka using stainless u-bolts (1 3/4" I believe). At the front of the boat, the square tubing is sandwiched between two aluminum plates, the "sandwich" is bolted together. The bottom aluminum plate is screwed to the bow into the threaded inserts that were used for the eye strap that held the bow handle. The furling drum is bolted into the top aluminum plate. The cross brace is just 1/8" thick aluminum flat bar. It works but I would like to replace it with something more stiff. The bow reinforcement has been in use for about a year and has been holding up great. The only real drawback to it is that it makes it a bit harder to get to the bow hatch bungees.
I bought the jib sail used. It is from a boat called a "2.4 Metre", is made by North Sails, and is about 35 square feet. To keep the luff of the sail somewhat twist free when furling, I later added plastic tubing that's used for the water supply for refrigerator ice makers. The tubing helps with the twist, has a low profile, is light weight and still allows me to fold the furled jib.
When the winds pick up, or if I just want the jib out of the way for fishing or for maximum pointing into the wind, I'll furl the jib and drop it down to the deck. The coil of blue line that is wrapped up near the head of the furled jib are my shrouds. I added them to help support the mast from the higher loads of the jib. The "shrouds" are just paracord so they do stretch still allowing some flex from the mast. They do limit the flex, though, so the boat is noticeably less stable since the sail won't spill as much wind. However, when hiking out and keeping the boat as level as possible, they do give a bit of performance boost, even without the jib, since the mast isn't flexing and spilling as much wind as normal. The shrouds are attached to the halyard, so they come down with the jib to completely clear everything out of the way. I only use them if the jib is out or when I want a more active ride - hiking out and trying to squeeze out a little more speed.
Even though my head sail is an actual jib, on the TI, it acts more like a mini screecher or reacher (whatever you want to call it). With the flexly mast, short bow and small centerboard, it's hard to get a head sail to boost windward performance. For maximum pointing ability I do not even use the head sail. Though, it does work great, and gives a noticeable boost anywhere more than 70 or 80 degrees off the wind.
WARNINGS, CAUTIONS and SUCH STUFF!!!
I DO NOT recommend any of this stuff unless you are VERY comfortable with your boat, are fine with capsizing and the winds are below 10 mph or so. Once the winds are above that, the boat is overloaded with too much sail and bogs itself down, driving itself into the bow wave. The shrouds decrease the stability of the boat and should not be used unless you are hiking out. In reality, they probably shouldn't be used at all. They are just something that I've been playing with, trying to squeeze out every little ounce of speed. A better option would be to get a Hobie 16! If only my garage was bigger!