"One big problem you hit in over 20 knots of wind is the sea state."
Hi Timbo, agree with you there. The race I used as a case study was on an inland dam, although quite large in area, the day of the race was quite unique, presenting ideal conditions to set that record. First leg to the island was a beam reach, but the wind only started blowing a short while before the race start, so the water was quite flat for the first leg. We (the cats) actually sailed a high course parallel to the shoreline, so were in very flat water since it was blowing "offshore", and then sailed a short deep reach across a bit of open water to the south end of the island. The beat up the back of the island was quite lumpy for us, but perhaps Eric had flatter water since he got there earlier than we did. (I had to do a woman-overboard retrieve, you just can`t get good crew these days ). 400+ keelboats that start half an hour before you can churn up a narrow passage quite a lot, and they are interesting to dodge going upwind - we saw a Dart 18 get run right over by a 30ft bus just ahead of us.
From the North end of the island we headed for the shoreline again since there seemed to be more wind there, and smoooooth water, and had a 20+km twin-wire close reach straight to the finish line. It just doesn`t get better !

So all said we probably had the best conditions for a record, which explains why it still stands.

Our time was 1hr34min, so average speed was 15,32knots on the Mosquito, a 16ft "baby Tornado". That boat weighed about 43kg more than my current one, so I`m sure we`d have one faster, just as I`m sure Eric would have too if they had the new rig & twin-wires.

Steve