Do the rich always get richer?

According to offshore coach Stuart Greenfield, an apparent escape is not a winning advantage when racing offshore, and a lead is never secure:

The rich get richer. You hear it a lot in offshore racing: the boats that get in front sail away even quicker, and the rest of us watch them go.

I heard it again recently from the skipper of a good yacht, who felt it really did answer some of his worries while racing offshore. So I thought about it more deeply, very specifically for racing in UK and northern European waters, and looked at a lot of results. This is my conclusion. Superstition and folklore will always have their place, of course. Perhaps.

I should declare an interest. I have believed it myself, on the helm, in the dark. – Full report