Time to get those race boards trimmed...

It's an amazing feat .. 119.5km/h .. trully flogging along.

Also, over at Luderitz, Windsurfing have been smashing their own speed records of late too .. a new world record of 52.05 knots (first time windsurfers ever officially recorded over 50 knots)

Windsurfing all done, now kites are entering the course.. should be interesting

luderitz-speed.com/
www.facebook.com/luderitzspeedchallenge

Where's the footage shot?

Wow, what a BEAST!

Dave Whettingsteel said...
Interesting he is an Ozzie, also in his blog on their website he talks about being really motivated to put a decent gap between himself and the kiters who inch up a couple of knots a year. He thanks Kitesurfers for motivating him.

He talks about 70 knots being possible with the same craft. Unreal. Given kites are up to 56 knots I think, I wonder if kiting technology will stretch that far. Fascinating stuff.

What's fascinating is that their foil designs have overcome the cavitation issues that are seen in other craft around 55knots making that a physical barrier. This puts their theoretical barrier at 2.4 times wind speed. Also, the way the forces are balanced out, the faster the wind, the faster the craft goes - there is never any risk of tipping over. So with a few upgrades to the structure and in 40knot winds, they could hit over 80knots which IMO is out of the reach of kiting.

Very interesting read is the recount of what went down on the day of the run.

www.sailrocket.com/blogs

sunseeker said...

Dave Whettingsteel said...
Interesting he is an Ozzie, also in his blog on their website he talks about being really motivated to put a decent gap between himself and the kiters who inch up a couple of knots a year. He thanks Kitesurfers for motivating him.

He talks about 70 knots being possible with the same craft. Unreal. Given kites are up to 56 knots I think, I wonder if kiting technology will stretch that far. Fascinating stuff.

What's fascinating is that their foil designs have overcome the cavitation issues that are seen in other craft around 55knots making that a physical barrier. This puts their theoretical barrier at 2.4 times wind speed. Also, the way the forces are balanced out, the faster the wind, the faster the craft goes - there is never any risk of tipping over. So with a few upgrades to the structure and in 40knot winds, they could hit over 80knots which IMO is out of the reach of kiting.

Very interesting read is the recount of what went down on the day of the run.

www.sailrocket.com/blogs

Never any risk of tipping??? You havent been following his previous attempts then!