Posted by Adam Quinan on February 12, 2004 at 11:29:53 from 66.185.85.76 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: Young Sailors posted by Laurence Monkhouse on February 12, 2004 at 08:06:02:
Laurence Monkhouse wrote: Off the wind Amazon was certainly faster. But in the close hauled section in the race in SD from Wild Cat Island to Beckfoot Swallow caught up and overtook from a position a long way behind at the lee mark. And it is close hauled work which is usually considered to be the best test of a boat. On that basis Swallow was the better boat.
There are number of factors which make this race a special event and not a definitive test of the boats' sailing ability. Firstly, the Amazon's crew was much lighter, so you would expect her to sail better downwind even if she had the same underwater configuration.
Similarly, going upwind the lighter crew could not keep her sailing during the gusts so they had to round up to avoid capsizing.
If the race had been sailed with identical crews and under different conditions, the results could have been a lot different.