Racing Uni is definately harder, and presents more challenge upwind and down, but that's why I do it, for the challenge. AND...if you do poorly, you have no crew to blame!

As Karl mentioned, I have seen sloops go by me upwind, in very light air, mostly due to the 'turbo' effect the jib gives to the main. But I usually catch them downwind, as I have less weight.

It's usually at the downwind mark/spin douse, where I lose some distance to the Sloops, as they can do it while the skipper is still steering, or out on the wire, and he's trimming the main in, etc. while I've got to basically stop driving/trimming, snuff the spin, and then get back out on the wire and start trimming again.

Having an extra set of hands is a real advantage there, which only gets bigger as the wind increases. Coming in off the wire to snuff really hurts the Uni vs. the Sloops.

If I had the money, and good, reliable, regular crew, I'd have an A cat and a F Something (16 or 18).

The A cat would be for when my crew was unavailble or to go to a good local A cat regatta, and the F boat for the two up 20kt spinnaker runs!

I think in the 'average' wind, what ever that is, (say 8-10kts?) they are pretty equal around the cans, so it comes down to who is sailing their boat at 'optimum' speed with every puff and lull, who see's the shifts coming and who takes advantage quicker. It is easier in all conditions, for the two up crew to shift gears re. adjusting the downhaul, rotator, etc. with two more hands avaiable. So the gustier it gets, the more the sloops should do better by being able to shift gears quicker.