Wouter,
How does one 'set a record' when not in a race??? Records are set in official races; not in practice. One cannot set a record in Formula 1 racing except in an official race. One cannot win an Olympic Gold Medal or set an official record except in an official race/contest. In the Indy 500 Race or Lemans what goes on in practice counts for nothing officially. Setting a record on raceday is part of the contest. You have to work the traffic and the weather may not be perfect but that is all part of the contest. Setting a so called 'record' on a non raceday is strange. I have never heard of that. I sailed the Texel Race in 1981 and was the first boat across the finish line and the time was under 3 hours. I was told that was the E. T. record at that time. The race was held in white squall conditions, 30+ knot wonds, with no visibility at times. We could not find the second mark until we had sailed past it by about a mile so we had to sail back to it to windward. We were in a collision with a photo boat that got too close in the 6ft to 8ft seas. At one point we were trapped inside a dredge pipeline that went to shore so we had to turn around and sail back out of this dead end road and round the barge/dredge which was about a half mile out to sea. The jib halyard broke at the top of the downwind sailing legs and that made us slow tacking downwind. The second mark was also out of position and sent the boats sailing down the top of a mile long sandbar at the beginning of the third leg. We almost pitchpoled several times from running aground with the bows as we surfed down the face of the breaking 6ft to 8ft waves. The bows dug into the sand and shot sand up on the tramp deep enough to cover the sheets and blocks so that we had to feel for them and after that they didn't run well. The race instructions included rounding the VC bouy.
Things like this happen in real races and these are the conditions under which 'real official records' are set. These other record attempts you talk about in ideal conditions sound like 'let's pretend' to me.
Good Sailing,
Bill
