msbbarret
One of the Leander class frigates beat the Navy's speed record (they'd knocked off the engine governors on those big steam turbine plants), so I was told by one of her crew
I suspect a slight twist in that tale. The RN certainly has far faster ships. For a number of years HMS Cavalier held the record of fastest in the Fleet. HMS Speedy was faster still.
Now your Leander may have been fastest in the fleet or fastest in class but only in 1982 as Cavalier had long gone. Cavaliers beam/length ratio was far finer at 10:1 compared with a Leander at 8.6:1 but I am not sure whether that was the broad-beam Leander.