OK,
I have raced the statue of liberty race 7 or 8 times on a Dart 18, Nacra 5.8, Nacra 6.0 NA, Nacra 6.0 NA with SPI, and on a hobie 16. typicaly the race is upwind-downwind in anywhere from 0-20 knots of breeze. About 1/2 the time a spinnaker is worth it overall.

Navigation is easy most years. You start and sail to the end of the war pier. If you get to close, they run you off with machine guns. Next you sail to the Verisano Bridge which should be visable. Next you sail up the river untill you see the Statue of Liberty. Round it either way. I suggest you go between the statue and land downwind which ever way the wind is blowing. Big wind shadow. don't get too close. Avoid the ferrys. Sail back under the bridge. You should be able to see sandy hook. Sail to it. When you see the war pier, give it a wide birth. YOu will see all the white buoys marking the restricted zone. From there sail to the finish.

Frankly, if you need electronics to sucessfully sail this race, you should not be there. A compass is good in case the fog rolls in and a map is a good idea.

Now if you want to win the thing, that is a whole different ballgame. the keys are current avoidance, the sea breeze and boat speed. If the current is against you under the bridge you need to get to one of the shorelines and work it agressivly,plan on tacking or gibing as the case may be every 8-10 seconds if you have daggerboards. Anchored freighters have huge windshadows don't get stuck behind one.
As far as safety goes, stay out of the way of the freighters. There is a cross current and a narrow channel for them. They are traveling at 15 knots or so the don't get swept into the shallows. They will not stop just to avoid you. They can't. The channel is fairly obvious and there is no reason to be in it most of the time anyway. There is a lot of junk in the water. Most of it is wood and junk that floated down the hudson river.

This is a damn fun race, very hard to win you first time out.

Good Luck
Eric Anderson