I can think of two local events that may be applicable to this discussion. Back in the 70s, a microburst or severe thunderstorm cell with winds in excess of 50 ripped through the Potomac dinghy fleet on their normal Sunday sail. No one saw it coming, and almost everyone (60+) boats went over. Some people were in the water for hours (on a very narrow constrained body of water) as the RC, Harbor Police, fishermen, etc slowly found everyone. The RC had no more than 4 boats, and maybe only two.

Last year (or maybe year before), the Albacore fleet had a big event at Solomons Island when a squall went through. About 50 boats went over. Most of these eventually righted themselves, but there were some broken masts and damage. Recovery was hampered by RC boat breakdowns and loosing count of total numbers of boats on the water. RC again had no more than 4 boats.

Now, you can probably argue both of these either way. Even if the RC had 20 boats on the water, the amount of boats over and the speed at which they drifted would have still caused problems. The sailors still HAD to be dressed to handle the conditions. More chase boats would have certainly sped things up. If I can afford it, I would definitely like to run a dinghy race with lots of chase boats, especially in areas with commercial traffic (i.e., drift into the shipping lane and get run over). I am not convinced the typical dinghy can actually self-righting, whereas I am more confident with cats. It is kind of ironic that we typically do "high risk" distance races with little or no support, whereas bouy races in semi-sheltered waters have lots of support. Maybe one driver is the amount of C fleeters/novices you expect to see. I'll also note that the Optimist class has VERY rigid guidelines on chase boats required per number of competitors. Maybe as adults we do assume more responsibility...

Chris