Have you tried texturing the deck of the Tako (i.e., the inside faces of a cut cylinder)? Then you know how the texture on the one side is distorted. Well, now you can use planar mapping in the Texture tab to get your textures looking right. It's easy enough to do, but bear in mind that the repeat units for planar mapping are "Repeats per Meter" instead of "Repeats per Face."
As far I can tell, the planar mapping for the outside of a sphere is fubar. Otherwise it would make spinnaker texturing easier.