Speed for money: nothing beats a windsurfer!
Surfer and Kite surfers overhere have several boards and a multitude of sails and mast. Each for optimal performance in a narrow windrange. The cost of all that is gettting very close to a catamaran. The kite surfers overhere, the serious ones, are spending more on the gear that one spends on a catamaran.
The picture is always more nuanced.
Wouter
Sure, many windsurfer sailors use a range of gear. But that's partly because they can afford plenty of gear for the cost of a single cat.
And boards are very efficient. Longboards, with one small sail for all conditions, are efficient across the full range of winds. Last time I sailed my Mistral IMCO (just 7.4m2 of sail) against cats I was similar speed around a windward/leeward course to a Nacra 14 square (which is a few points slower than a Hobie 16) that was sailed by an A Class worlds runner-up. That was in about 12-15 knots. In lighter airs the Nacra would have been ahead, around a triangle or in stronger winds the board may have been quicker. The old 12'9" LEchner D2 boards were even faster and I'm sure they'd burn off cats of the same length even upwind in most conditions.
Considering the board is over a foot shorter and carries about half the sail AND the longboards will sail in light winds and in stronger winds than many cats, it's pretty impressive.
Good Formula guys used to sometimes pace our club fleet. Their square-running speed seemed similar to the world A Class champion, upwind they were a little bit lower than the Formula 16s (Taipan 4.9s) with slightly slower VMG.
Compare apples to apples. A 12' board with 7.4m2 of sail would be VERY competitive with a 12' cat with 7.4m2 of sail in just about all conditions, and it would kill it for top-line speed.
