This straight off the Boardseeker website:
Well the speed world is all over the place at the moment with the news that the kiting record of 50.57 by Alexandre Caizergues and the ground breaking 50+kt run of Sebastien Cattelan DO NOT count for the official sailing speed records. In an ISAF meeting it was decided that kite powered craft could not be recognised as the holder of the World Sailing Speed record.
Now we windsurfers dont always see eye to eye with the kiters, but credit where credit is due, they broke the 50kts, and however you look at things they are powered solely by the wind.
To add further to the controversy, it seems nobody can really explain why. The ISAF say a kite is not a sail. However their definition of a sail is:
A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind—in essence a vertically-oriented wing.
Back in the 70's Jacobs ladder made numerous attempts at the record using a stack of flexifoils attached to a boat and it was considered one of the great innovations of the speed sailing world. Now 30 years later it seems kites are sails?
So now the race is still on to break the 50 kts. Antoine, Finian, Bjorn and Whitey can all strap up their speed boards again and get back out on the course. Not sure how victorious they will feel however.
There's a sail, and an edge. I recognise it.
Perhaps the ISAF is trying to prevent people like the "Jackass" crew from just attaching a kite to a rubber tube and going out in a cyclone, which is a shame really.
Let's look at it another way:
If you took a fully-rigged windsurf sail, detached it from the mastfoot, and somehow "flew" it up in the air on 20 metre lines, so it dragged you along below...is that sailing?
If you took a kitesurf kite without lines, fastened one corner of the leading edge directly to a board, and put a boom around it and rode the board like a windsurfer...is that kiting?
A sail or a kite can be made of carbon or cloth or plastic or even wood, and can come in all manner of crazy shapes, but it's still clear what is a sail is and what is a kite.
So kites can have the world speed kiting record and windsurfers can have the world speed sailing record! Hurrah!
As I wrote in the GPS section
The main problem kiters face is no one really likes kites except kiters.
So they may win out in the bay but they lose politically every time.
It's a furken big yacht full of bollocks.
The kiters jumped through the hoops and leapt over barriers set up by the officialdom and still wiped the floor.
Then after the dust is settled they move the goal posts once again.
The Kiting crew know that Alex has done the biz
The Windsurfing crew (apart from those sailing on De-nile) know that Alex has done the biz.
The officials know that know that Alex has done the biz.
They just don't want to acknowledge it and put it out of range of the froggy boat.
HTFU princess's, Give Alex the recognition he deserves
T'was only a 2 sec peak just before he made a Bender sized dent in the Mandurah estuary
How about a glider? Gliders are powered by wind. And what if the glider was dragging a kiteboard in the water behind it? Is that sailing?
"VERTICALLY-ORIENTED!" There you have it. So be careful not to lean your rig over more than 45 degrees or you will be classed as horizontally oriented.
I had vegetarian mexican food last night. I'm powered by wind today - is that sailing?
How about kitersurfers are not considered a sailing vessel (just speculating) as they have a kite, that is completly independently from the board, and only attached togeather via the rider. There is no connection between the kite and the board. Its almost like 2 different objects. I am just wondering if ISAF are thinking along these lines.
Whats would be the difference between a modified paraglider, with more forward pull, trawling a thin line in the water, or even dragging a small tray along the water ?
except the waterskier has his shoulders ripped out of their sockets through the sudden jerking action.....I think not.
mmmm hanggliding... Think that is the only sport I might like better than windsurfing. One day maybe when some relative dies and leaves me a fortune. 
As I posted in the kiting forum.
I think we are not trying to discuss the actual technicalities on how it would be done. Its just to bring up the point, when does it stop becoming "sailing", instead of something being dragged along the water with as little friction as possible by a flying machine.
I think ISAF may just be drawing a line here. But who knows exactly where it is and why. But also agree that its ashame that its done after the event. But I suppose out of the 2 options, a) back track and disqualify the kites and set new guidelines, or b) open up a whole can of worms for the future of the sailing record, they probably chose the best option. Who knows.
