Dave,
You seem to have covered everything.
I too was concerned about the lack of second wire at the front to hold the mast up, but when you look around there are an awful lot of boats the same. I have a short strop from top of forestay to mast as a safety feature.
Like Dave I also hoist a cover up the furled sail to protect from sunlight. I found that it does tend to flog in wind though. I cured this with a couple of bungees rond it as high as I could reach. The alternative is to have a sail with a sacrificial UV strip added to the leach.
I did my first bridge shooting with the reefing spar this year – no problem at all. You don’t need a line to lower the mast, just undo the forestay from the bow fitting and get the crew to lower the mast as you swing the reefing spar down with it. The spar will lie along the mast with a bungee to secure it.