Chris Bertish completed 69km (42.8miles) straight downwind with winds from 15-45knots in 7h06min in Cape Town last week. He then went on to do another 40km the day after in another 5h30min - all for charity: www.dogreathingstrust.com
Now we're trying to find out if anyone has done a longer downwind run un-interupted?
Great effort.. thanks for the pics.. We did one once that was about 50-60 klms.. (St Kilda to Mornington)
We have a DW run that's about 60-70 klms (Port Melb to Portsea) that we hope to do in about 3-4 hrs in a good wind.. 
Great to see him on the 14' Glide.. 
DJ
Whats with the knife strapped to his thigh, worried about the little toothys[}:)]
As for the longest check in with Phil DW as he regulary does 50+km just for fun i think
.. I guess we'll find out one day just how long it takes to do the Port to Port run...
thanks for replies - guess Laird and Dave holds the record then. Chris was averaging 9.7km/h on day one - thats calculated on total travelling time including stops to eat/drink - slower on second day due to hardly any wind.
Chris has done 13km/h average speed on our normal 10km run - which is still way off Daves 15km/h in Hawaii for a longer distance...
Greg Bertish is sponsored by Coreban - Chris by Naish.
Yes DJ, spot on. If you do 65 k's at Dave's pace of 3:41/k, you will arrive at Portsea in 3:59:21.
I revisited Dave's website to re-read his entry on the Oahu-Kauai channel. It's a must read. www.davidkalama.com/2011/03/possessed/
His story dosn't say how long it is, so I looked it up. The Ka'ie'ie Waho channel (Kaena to Kapaa) is no less than 77.5 miles (125 kilometers). He does mention that it took them 22 hours.
Plugging that into my handy calculator reveals a pace of 10:34/k, average speed of ~5.7km/hr.
I'll bet your Port to Port speed will average out somewhere between these two extreme examples.
Thanks Larry.. Plus the distance is a little less than I thought.. Maybe Port Melb. to Rosebud might be a better option on a true north wind.
DJ
reading posts above Chris could still be in for longest DOWNWINDER in one go? Dave's channel crossing sounds mental and may have included longest downwinder?
Anyways, cool to see the guys pushing the boundaries, Chris's run was pure downwind the whole way and I'll get a vid together with some highlights.
Dale Chapman and I did our Byron to Burleigh downwinder (70km) over 2 years ago but I am sure that someone else would have done bigger downwinders that that by now. It took us 8.5 hours, which averaged around 8km/hr. Chris' time of around 7 hours is very doable as Dale and I were not paddling to try set any speed records.
I think those 2 girls that paddled the Oahu-Kauai channel (in around 24hrs, I think) would be in the running for this "record".
If the OP is asking specifically about DOWNWINDERs, then I don't see how the Laird and Dave or the two women and their island hop are relevant as neither was a downwinder. Surely a long distance paddle and a downwinder are quite different.
