As it feels like this thread is approaching closure , and grappling for a practical value :
I'm buying a mainsail for my uni-rig F16. All the sails from the various manufacturers represent an invisible hierarchy of "best" to "worst" at hastening the force needed to move the boat forward in the wind conditions in which I intend to race.From the standpoint of pure consumerism and given the abundance of misconception about how sailboats move - how does one distinguish a smart (fast) sail from one cut by a minion of the church of equal transits (buy what's winning ?) ?

I'm pretty new to sailing , has the misinformation about how lift occurs manifest in wide spread purchase of bad sail designs in the past or am I safe assuming most sails offered are "smart"?

Regardless , loved this thread...

PK