Re the wetted surface/sail area ratio - this seems to be a popular ratio among sailors of heavy boats but in reality the ways it's used can be very misleading. I've read of many people who claim that the ws/sa ratio is the best measure of light wind performance but real life shows us that is simply not true. To use an unbiased example, my 28'er would have a significantly better WS/SA ratio than my 36'er when both are using big headsails, but having raced both of them I know that there is no way that the 28'er will beat the big boat even in light winds, despite the fact that many of their ratios are similar.
As a more scientific example, the sophisticated ORC VPP shows that a J/35 with a short overlap jib has a SA/WS of 2.8. A J/24 with normal 150% genoa has a SA/WS of 3.3. Both boats have very similar hull shapes allowing for the proportional difference created by their different sizes, and the J/24 gains about 2% speed because it doesn't drag a propeller. The J/24, however, is 10% slower upwind in 6 knots of breeze.
If SA/WS ratio was of such importance, the J/24 would be much faster upwind because of its higher ratio. In fact it is much slower upwind because it is shorter. A shorter and heavier boat will have much wider entrance angles and, for equal draft, less leading edge on the keel and rudder which will therefore be less efficient. The weight has to go somewhere, so it's going to have a fatter underwater shape, a steep rise to the buttocks that will reduce pressure recover, etc etc etc
A thread in the Junk Rig Association says that one set of data shows that "in normal sailing conditions, and taking account of both tacks, most of the junks make ground to windward at between 75% and 80% of the speed of the bermudan rig." A JRA member with a carbon sparred junk says it's 10% slower than a bermudan. The bermudan, by the way, loses about 2% of speed by not carrying a spinnaker. So a boat that is already of a pretty slow design will lose a significant amount of speed from the rig.
Sure, the junk rig may be easy to handle - but surely we should also consider their handling if both rigs have equal performance. The JR guys keep on comparing a fast or standard bermudan to a junk rig, instead of comparing two rigs of equal performance. A bermudan rig that is 10% slower than a standard bermudan rig will be very small (and therefore not need reefing very often) and can be extremely simple; perhaps even a cat rig with no battens.
Sure, people may speak highly of the Flicka, of MacNaughton designs, etc. But once start saying "people like it so it must be good" then logically we have to also consider the people who like IOR boats, modern production boats, lightweight multis, heavy multis and 70 footers for cruising and say that they are the best. I've met people who cruised for many years around the world on an IOR lightweight flush-decked alloy boat with a fractional rig that needed runners to stay up, and they loved it. There are very experienced people who say that such a boat would be the worst possible cruiser - but who should we believe in such a case?
Looking at the story about Glory II we see that she usually has to motor and that she could be turned 180 degrees off course by a big wave. If there was a modern boat that had to be motored to average slow speeds and had such bad directional stability, some people would be using that as proof that most modern boats are rubbish.
Over on your other thread, you compared modern production boats to SUVs. Arguably, heavy full keelers can be compared to SUVs because arguably some people buy them for their perceived safety in extreme conditions and arguably that is not borne out by the evidence, or such a small factor as to be largely irrelevant. For example, the hull construction you need to make a 25 footer weigh 6 tons is a bit like the stereotyped SUVver who feels safer because of their "bull bar", mass and size. Both the boat owner and the SUVer may buy their kit because of the perception that mass = safety and that their "go anywhere" machine is better and more macho than a "wimpy" item.
