Until someone builds a boat within the current rule set optimised for single handers I dont think you can assume that you wont be competitive.

By the way there are 2 very well sailed blades here in Australia that routinely beat sloops across the line and win races.

Maybe you should have a talk to those guys about bringing a one up f16 up to speed.

Starting with a boat that doesn't measure just to try stuff out and then working backwards to fit the rule, makes no sense to me.

The scientific way to do it would be, start with a boat that measures, change one thing at a time within the rules. Keep what works change what doesn't. Extra speed probably lies in setting up you boat to suit you and keeping things really simple.

And it wouldn't hurt to not think about stuff too much and have some fun.