Thing to understand is that uni-rig can always point higher than a sloop when trimmed right, BUT this doesn't mean that their upwind Velocity Made Good (VMG) is better as well. And there is anoher thing. A-cat sailors today make alot of fuss about reaching the A-mark first while that is absolutely meaningless when you give all the lead that you have away on the downwind part. Our catamaran races are not just upwind legs, they are always full laps. So one can optimize a boat to be an upwind killer but if that kills your own downwind speed at the same time then you have a serious problem in open class racing.
But back to your H17 example.
What often happens when a uni-rig joins the race is that all the sloop boats try to engage the uni-rig in a pointing duel, which kills the speed of a sloop. For a sloop it is waaaaaaay better to just point lower, speed up and achieve better VMG through boatspeed rather than pointing.
In the case of the F16's. Yes a uni-rig F16 (1-up as we say) will always be ABLE to point higher than a sloop but this is not to say that it will always have a better upwind VMG. Or that pointing high is the best way to achieve the optimal VMG even on a 1-up F16.
I find on my own boat that alot of downhaul that and pointing just slightly higher than the sloops is fastest. If I want to I can point 10 to 15 degrees higher than say an I-20 but that doesn't seem to be fast enough to stay ahead of the I-20's on handicap or elapsed time. I found that pointing high was only beneficial when other factors like current or a nearby shoreline really favours staying on a certain tack. However, I'm still working on finding the right trade-off ratio though, because if you point too low than your VMG drops again. So there is an optimal point between pointing high and having a slow vmg and pointing low and having a slow vmg.
In case of the F16 boat that I'm sailing, the Taipan F16 if you will, I find that it likes to ride freely and with high boat speed. For some reason you get better VMG if you ride the Taipan hull shape like that. I think that both the Taipan and the other F16's like Stealth and Blade will point better than the H17 but that is not the same as saying that both boats have their optimal VMG at the same courses (same applies for downwind sailing of course). I think the H17 is a boat that like pointing over boatspeed, but I'm certainly not the most experienced sailor on the H17.
One thing Bard and I found while racing the Stealth F16 in april is that you just have to sail your own race. You have to look at the other boats (F18's) to see what the favoured side of the course is but not look at the others to see what the proper course is. Once we adjusted the boat course to what felt good for the Stealth we found that we started placing noticeably higher in the results. Actually we were reaching the A-mark alot sooner then before even if we were pointing a little lower than the F18's. Of course as mentioned at the start of this thread it doesn't matter how you sail as long as you reach the finish line sooner than the others. You can even sail 20 degrees lower than all others as long as that will get you to the mark or finish first. The F16's that I've sailed so far seem to prefer boat speed over pointing when optimizing for VMG. Mostly by only a couple of degrees; just a little not very much. I think the Blade F16 favours such a trade-off less. It can both point high and low without affecting VMG much. If the VMG is high in both modes than I think this to be the best setup for a race boat. This gives you more options on how to appoach a mark. Especially when a current is affecting the course. But that is another topic.
What is striking about the H17 is how similar in specs it is too a F16 :
Hobie 17
Length overall 5.20 mtr
Waterline length 5.14 mtr
Mainsail area ; 14.76 sq. mtr.
Mainsail luff length : 7.93 mtr.
Overall weight : 150 kg
F16's
Length overall 5.00 mtr
Waterline length 5.00 mtr
Mainsail area ; 15.00 sq. mtr.
Mainsail luff length : 8.00 mtr.
Overall weight = 107 kg
Fair winds Jerry !
Wouter
