Håkan,

I don't quite see how you can claim that :




The first M20 (normal version) at Oudeschild was Flier/Deventer at 1:51:30 - 0:58:01 = 53:29 leg time
The first F18 at oudeschild was Bundock/Ashby at 1:53:10 - 1:00:36 = 52:34 leg time

In fact the F18 was FASTER then the M20 (normal version) on this particular leg, not 10 % slower.

So I'm sorry to say that your claim is simply not true.

Granted Bundock/Ahsby are probably better sailors then Flier/Deventer but not by that much. Afterall, there are simply no slow teams in the lead of a 600 boat cat race. For such a large fleet will have an enormous depth in talent because of the shear numbers participating. And also it is extremely hard to stay lucky for three and halve hours.

Probably you took the times by Dercksen/McIntosh on the Volvo Extreme 20, or even the M20 GTI of Flier/Deventer, to base your 10% claim upon but really neither of these boats are a M20. Both of them have converted to sloop rigs which goes directly against the fundamental design concept of the M20. The Volvo extreme 20 even replaced the whole M20 rig by one based on the current sloop Tornado rig. This is like nascar racing, they keep the body work of a normal car but replace the whole engine and gearbox. No way this can be regarded as the same car as before.

Wouter