It is difficult to see how speed assessments are a bit too exaggerated when you look at some of the records for long distance races. Like the Miami-Key Largo Race, a 45-mile race, finished in under two hours. And the Sandusky Steeplechase, a 23-mile race finished in a record time of 57 minutes with the last mile or two being upwind. And the Key Largo Steeplechase, with a total of 110 miles being finished in a record time of 5 hours 40 minutes (and that included having to tack, or paddle, or at least lose speed through mangrove channels here and there, and altering course to avoid sandbars.)

A friend of ours has a video of him and skipper on a Tornado going 32-34 knots, with rooster tails shooting out a considerable distance behind the boat, for a short distance before they pitchpoled. And the same friend and another skipper have been clocked on a Nacra 6.0 doing 27-28 knots over a considerable distance. He is sure those were knots per hour, but even if these last two examples turned out to be mph instead of kph, they are still impressive speeds.