It can also be that the effect comes from reducing the damage from a supersize diameter non-rotating mast

I always find it very difficult to compare settings across boats and classes. We trim to the telltales and percieved boatspeed when flattening and have markings on the mast for the downhaul grommet positions. But what that is in %.. It is a fair bit of downhaul and it also makes it easier to pop the battens over when tacking.

Airfoils moving at cat speeds with our AoA, planform, surface loading, and aspect ratios are out of my experience totally and I dont know if they can be compared at all? Looking at STVOL aircraft they do all kind of funky things like leading slots, high AoA landing/takeoff etc. but still operate in only one medium (air) and can in some instances benefit from drag while a catamaran parks or comes into the risk zone with high drag. At our top speeds an aircraft like the Fi 156 would be at its stalling speed?

Digressions digressions, but oh so interesting!

Speed have its own intrinsic value I would say.