There is nothing social about racing single handed... It is all about you and making your boat go... and then sailing against your competitors on the course. It tends to be a dick forest on the beach as well. The only shared experience of the sailors is often the racing on the course... 10 boats is still 10 guys hanging at the keg. That gets old as well.
While there may be merit in some of your other comments, I think this is a huge generalization. I sail almost exclusively singlehanded, I love it and I find the whole experience extremely social - in fact that is a very large part of why I enjoy racing so much. But then I sail with CRAW, which is an extremely sociable, family oriented club. It's also helpful having other singlehanders in the club - Tom and I for example are at roughly similar levels of ability and we regularly discuss our performance and what we think is or isn't working for us.
