Annals of Record Breaking–The Need For Speed: In the world of sail power the magic number is 50–50 knots (almost 60 mph). That’s the sailing equivalent of the sound barrier and no sail powered vessel–either windsurfer or hi-tech purpose built multihull–has ever gone past it. The world record, set in 1993, by an otherworldly machine called “Yellow Pages Endeavour” stands at 46.52 knots. But the cool thing about this record is that it gets traded back and forth between the sailors and the windsurfers. And right now a pack of windsurfers are making a concerted effort to steal it back. The venue is in the south of France, a 1100 meter canal that is just 15 meters wide and perfectly designed for speed runs (because even when the wind blows hard the canal keeps the water flat). To take the record the windsurfers have to average more than 46.52 over a distance of 500 meters in the French Trench, and this past weekend two of them managed 45 knots in winds blowing 30, gusting to 40. Top speeds were probably close to 47-48 knots, which must seem insane on a windsurfer. One of them, Finian Maynard, describes the experience:

“The second 45-knot run felt the best and was the best. I got a solid gust at the start, a small wind-shadow in the middle and another solid gust at the finish. It felt like my gear was not even touching the water. It was sensational and I’ll never forget it. I think that it is within reason to think that YP can be broken for sure. If we can get a more usual record day with 40 knots and gusts to 45-48 knots, then YP will go down. Taking from my experience now, I think that getting to 50 knots might be harder than we all think. Time will tell.”

There are a bunch of windsurfers and sailing teams out there that are gunning for the record this year, so TWC will keep you posted….



The Current Champ: Crazy, no?