Setting the spinnaker

Hey Tim
I can offer you my thoughts.....maybe others have thoughts also :-)
The Spin sheets do lead back to a block at the pushpit and then I put mine on the cabin top winches as I have the pole guys loaded on the primary winches. (I find the poleguys will slip otherwise). My Zero doesn't have any cleats for the sheets either, but I use the self tailers to hold the sheet. I also have cleats next to my primary winches for cross sheeting the jib sheets that can double as a cleatin lighter air for spin sheet cleats. You also should have tweakers for your kite which run down to the stand up bullet blocks at the gunnels and then lead inboard to a small cleat. I also use these cleats for my barberhauler on the jib (I don't think barberhaulers are a typical zero setup).

What is the typical sequence in setting the spinnaker?
I've seen this done two ways. I typically set my tack after setting the pole, but I've seen the tack set after the hoist as well. It's something I'm going to try and see how it works. I'm a little skeptical about the kite hourglassing...but don't really know as I haven't tried it.
- set pole in position
- hoist spinnaker
- bring tack to the fore of the pole
- set sheet

You didn't ask about dousing? I find this is the tricky task. I've done it several ways. Both badly and successfully.

traditional take down
- drive the boat deep down wind to blanket the kite with the main
- pull the loaded sheet into the boat under the boom and hooking it over the winch
- ease the tack line to float the kite further behind the main and reduce the load further
- blow the halyard and haul butt on getting it into the boat
The risk with this is the tack hitting the water and scooping which happened to me and resulted in loosing a kite to the sea.

letterbox take down
-essentially the same steps but you take the weather sheet around to the leeward side and pull it between the boom and main sail. Keep the tack on hard. This method helps to hold the kite foot up out of the water, but results in having to rerun the weather sheet.

I also recently started throwing the halyard overboard to slow it down on the drop rather than trying to handle it by hand (don't have a third hand! hahahah :-) )

Hope this helps! How long have you had your zero? I've had mine a little over a year now :-)