When thinking of sailing speed records, the first vessels that come to mind are Alain Thébault’s hydrofoil trimaran, l’Hydroptere or the aptly named VESTAS Sailrocket 2. Both are highly engineered high tech craft which have been under developement for years. I tend to forget kite sailors, even though, Robert Douglas held the 500M world record for two years, for sailing his kite surfer at 55.65 knots. Now that the Sailrocket appears to have captured the record, the kite sailors are back to try to regain it.
Old Salt Blog
a virtual port of call for all those who love the sea , hosted by nautical novelist Rick Spilman
It has just become a longer road back on top for the kiteboarders because Sailrocket 2 just set a new outright (500m) sailing speed record today of 65+ knots! There is probably still more performance to be extracted from the kiteboards with the right R&D, but 10+ knots is a pretty damn big gap.
The efficiency of Sailrocket 2 is a huge engineering milestone for sail power as they approach 3X the speed of the wind. The kiting record (~ 56 kts) was set in 40-45 kt winds. This LEAP in performance is unprecidented and I don’t see kites catching them! What remains to be seen is Sailrocket 2’s limits. I predict see much higher speeds over time. One thing is for certain the cost of entry to speed sailing just went way up … exponentially. Congratulations to a great team!
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