Good point on that Tom - sounds like a good plan in some circumstances. I'm just not sure my daughter would have the strength to lift the entire rig, particularly if it's starting to blow.
Another good point. Honestly, I didn't do my homework on sprit rigs (snotters particularly) before ordering my sails. On our larger boat, my daughter loves triming the foresail(s), and so having a jib had some appeal. Secondly, I saw the mast height on the sloop rig and associated extra rigging (shrouds) at setup time, and ruled that out. We already have one balanced lug boat, so thought I'd try something new. Too bad the cut on the sail for a sprit rig really isn't right for a balanced lug or I would consider reverting to that for her. I guess I can always get another sail and make a yard, if we had to.
All that said, I just finished building it and haven't even got it out yet, so I may be prejudging all this, and overthinking, too quickly. I need to keep telling myself, for this boat(which isn't our race boat anyway), we should just take it out and have fun, and not worry about every inch of performance (as we do otherwise).