WoR notes that by 3072 the Adders had lost most of York to the Spirits. Furthermore, the world hadn't been as devastated by the Society stuff as other worlds. The Spirits used this period to speed up their relocation of some of their assets to Colleen. Militarily they were peeling off a cluster at a time from York.
Basically, the Spirits got a brief window where the Adders had refocused elsewhere, where the Adder forces on York were diminished, and the general chaos of the WoR era had given the Spirits some reprieve.
Colleen was first colonized in 3067, the Spirits used that period from 3067 to 3072 to get things moving, at first slowly, then faster once the chaos of the WoR era set in. This included moving a single genetic repository in 3070.
Then in August 3072 the Adders returned and this time they used orbital bombardment on York. They stopped just short of completely devastating the Adders and that world, but they destroyed most of the Spirits infrastructure in this act.
I think my point is that the Spirits were really only able to move as much as they did (and it wasn't very much) because of the chaos of the WoR era and because the Adders were so distracted by events elsewhere that they had allowed their focus (and their forces and foothold) on York to diminish. This also suggests their infrastructure on York just wasn't that modular or portable, it couldn't be easily relocated.
Because WoR tells us that aside from that single genetic repository, the Spirits didn't manage to move much to Colleen. Yes they moved some units and colonists, but they didn't manage to transfer much of any infrastructure worth noting, such as military factories. The final section on the Spirits in the WoR book tell us that the building/rebuilding of the Clan on Colleen was very slow moving.
Compare that to things the other Clans did to facilitate a relocation, like the Horses ordering a modular shipyard. The Horses had the leeway to decide on a plan and then to decide how best to execute that plan on a large scale. By comparison what the Spirits did felt more like a smuggling operation, a jumpship or two at a time, a cluster at a time, slowly moving them to Colleen.
When they did catch a break (the Adders really taking their eyes off the Spirits at York), it seemed to happen too suddenly and unpredictably for the Spirits to fully take advantage of it. Which makes sense, they didn't see all that WoR stuff coming. Even as some of it benefitted the Spirits and created a window or opening, they weren't prepared to exploit it.
More importantly, and stupidly, they kept getting themselves involved in the WoR events. Such as reaving other Clans. Which cost them a great deal and no doubt tied up a lot of the Clan's resources.
To my mind for the Spirits to have pulled off a bigger, faster move. They would have needed to basically not participate in the Reaving of other Clans. Conserve their resources that way. But also they would have needed to correctly anticipate that the Adders would take their eye off the ball at York, and that the chaos of the WoR era was going to create an opening for the Spirits to do more. To move more freely.
That only makes sense though with the full benefit of 20/20 hindsight and knowing that the WoR events were going to create that. We have that benefit now talking about this stuff and looking back with knowledge of what was going to happen. The Spirits really had no way of anticipating the opening and opportunity that the era would grant them.
