Hi Steve,
Let me tell you how it really was on Day One of the Steeplechase. There was 5.5hours of double trapeze wind that day for everybody in the race. It was not light and shifty. The wind started out from the NE and made a gradual swing to the E and then to the SE just like the weatherman said it would by mid afternoon. The SC20TR sailed out of sight from the rest of the fleet in the double trap conditions. In the ocean, where it can happen, it usually takes about seven miles for one boat to sail over the horrizon from another. There was about 30 minutes of no trapeze conditions as the wind gradually decreased to sero from the SE. Then there was about 30 minutes of paddling to the finish line for the first boat to finish. WE covered 65 NMi in 6.5 hours and sailing 50 miles of it to windward. Does that sounding like drifting to you?
The race committee had to sit there for another four or five hours waiting on other boats to finish. If you were the race committee and being pestered by mosqitoes as you waited, it would be easy to write the race up as being mostly a drifter the first day because those drifting conditions caused you much discomfort and to miss supper.
On the second day we did turn over but only after the leeward rudder broke off while running aground in a hard over, bearing off, position. With no rudder the boat rounded up slowly and rolled over on its side like it was in slow motion. Righting the boat did take longer than normal. At first we threw the drag chute out planning to do the water start quick righting thing. After trying this for a few minutes, it became obvious it was not going to work because the bows would not swing into the wind because the mast top was aground, water depth was 2ft to 3ft. Then we had to retrive the drag chute and put it away. Next we had to execute the shroud extension system to right the boat. This worked and the boat came up with the spinnaker still up and spinnaker sheets tangled everywhere like around hulls a couple of times and behind dagger boards etc. It took a few more minutes to get the spinnaker sheets straightened out but finally we were cleaned up and on our way again with only the windward rudder working. When we flew a hull which was often in these conditions, we had no steering, but we had boats to catch and time to make up. We learned quickly to make the boat bare off by easing the spinnaker sheet. Many boats turned over thay day. Some boats turned over more than once. It was a wild ride, 35 miles, to the finish line but we passed four or five boats and none passed us. This is how it really was, Steve, sailing on the boat that won the race.
Bill
Ps; Steve, there is a 400 pound ARC boat, rather than the 550 pound boat we were sailing, called the ARC22. It is 12ft wide with a 38ft tall mast. It has a PN of 57.3 and it goes down a little every year. I think it started out at 59 in 1992. There was a Marstrom Tornado w/spin in the race this year but he finished fourth, I think.
I have no desire to build a 375 pound SC20. I have been there and done my time with the SC20. In many years of sailing distance races on a 450 pound SC20, I was beaten by a single handed Tornado once in a drifter, 40 miles in 10 hours. I do not need to prove that point again. The SC20 is the only US built catamaran to win Yachting Magazines OOAK Regatta.