I'll take a stab at this Freeman.
Don't know much about carbonfiber .. but wouldn't they be too flexy? I'm sure UV would eat it up even with protection.
The Hunter "Vision" I think was free standing. (not sure)
I river sail out of necessity where I'm at .. I had a post in seamanship about pointing, a few sailors suggested making the
jib self tending. trouble is that would make my
jib about 90%. Good for tacking in higher winds I guess but most sailing is light air around here.
I've seen some blue water boats have self tending
jibs.
I don't know enough about the rest to really give you allot of tech and spec jargon about performance upwind though sorry.
fair winds!