Ever time this claim is made without any regard for the fact that this is entirely based on a very selective reading of the situation.

I would most definately call boats that for example hold the 24-hour distance records as speed machines. Not a single one is a uni-rig here, neither any multihull or monohull in this respect.

It is also very "uninformed" to refer to the 500 meter distance record holders (all-out speed record holders) as upwind machines. None of these records are achieved on any course that even resembles an upwind course. As good as all courses used for waterborn speed runs are downright beam reaches or shy broad reaches.

Throwing in the windsurfers as proof against sloops is also a bit disingenious. Afterall, how would a windsurfer be fitted with a jib that has a tight leech ? The technical problems in this respect are far more effective in exclude any jib then any performance oriented considerations.

The simple fact that the sloop rigged Hydropthere is the current 1 nm speed record holder and a very serious contender for breaking the 50 knot barrier first is simply and totally ignored. Why isn't a windsurfer or a winged uni-rig like Yellowpages/Macquarie innovation holding this record ?

All my points made point back to the following observation. There is a group in sailing that has determine on some grounds that uni-rig are superiors to sloops (given any situation) and they are selectively finding proof for that believe while ignoring commonly available data that invalidates this believe.

Now, I'm not denying the properties of a uni-rig; I'm just highly critical of the intepretation, extrapolation and believes that are derived from these. These simply don't hold up to basic scientific discourse that demands that a given statement must hold under all "allowed" situations.

The claim that uni-rigs are more performant (speed) is so generally worded that is allows all possible situations as counterproof, and many counterexamples can be found this way. Ergo, this claim and similar ones are scientifically disproven and have been for many decades if not centuries

Sorry.

Wouter