Here's something you may find interesting
In the diagram, the Hobie 16 would be similar to the old style Tornado (without a spinnaker)
What's labelled as the 18 ft skiff would be similar to an F16 or F18 with spinnaker
The 1/2 ton and 1 ton would be those miserably slow things you have to weave around
You can see on a beam and broad reach, the non-spin cats do pretty darn well.
One last point on reading the diagram - the distance from the center point to the line is your speed. If you extrapolate up or down to the horizontal line, that is your velocity made good (VMG is generally the portion of speed directly upwind or downwind on a windward leeward race course). Note that your fastest point of sail upwind is probably a bit further off the wind than you might imagine. While you're sails might be drawing properly at 35 or 40° true wind angle, it's not until you crack off to 45° or a bit more that you get your best VMG. This is called footing, and from what I've been told, boats like the H16, H17, and 18 do this very well.
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FAQ
I can usually tell how fast I'm going by the sounds my boat makes. It roars like a jet when I'm going really fast.