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.
Reports from other boats on the first day indicate that the double-trap conditions for them lasted about three hours, from 9 a.m. to noon. The wind then began to die rapidly until it got down to about 3-4 knots. It died completely at about 4 p.m., after the SC20 was already on the beach.
Apparently, the wind began to die first for the boats farther back on the course, while the Supercat, several miles ahead continued to get wind. So if Bill is correct, he and Eric were sailing most of the time in heavy air and the rest of the fleet was sailing most of the time in light to no air and doing a lot of paddling.
Therefore, it is hard to compare the performances of the various types of boats, because they were sailing in different wind conditions. Obviously, it was the superior speed of the Supercat 20 in the heavy air conditions that earned it the huge lead and the benefit of being in the good wind longer.
It could have just as easily have worked the other way, with the wind dying first for the lead boat(s), giving the rest of the fleet a chance to catch up.
Varying conditions in different sections of a long-distance course, or varying conditions for the whole course during the race, are also why it is not feasible to apply the wind-factor Portsmouth ratings in a distance race.
