Kitesurfing world speed record smashed
That's it, the fastest boat in the world.
In the world of speed records, it takes a huge development for the world record to jump by such a margin. With the kiteboarders, the increases came in increments of half a knot of less which is an understandable jump largely related to the wind strength at that particular period in time. To go a whole 4 knots quicker (in choppier water) just goes to show how good this boat really is, and also how hard it's going to be to beat!
The team that built the Vestas Sailrocket 2 has been at it for 10 years, achieving their goal was overwhelming, and a long time coming according to one of the team members:
"With the modifcations made to the new foil on VESTAS Sailrocket 2 working so well in light winds, the team were keen to see if they would translate to high speeds. VSR2 had constantly been hitting a 'glass ceiling' around 52 knots despite the fact that she was designed to do well over 60. This is the day when theory turned into reality and the team got to see speeds they could only dare dream about when they started over 10 years earlier. Peak speed 61.92 knots, average over 500 meters 54.08 knots. This was the teams first sight of a new horizon. The peaks and the averages are expected to climb in the following runs."
Kiteboarder Magazine was also a little crazy about the feat, obviously in shock after kiteboarding went down to a multi million dollar freak-a-maran (that's like a catamaran for those who didn't get it). Saying this week on Facebook:
"Has anyone else noticed that The Sail Rocket is a bit Zoolander... in that it can only go in one direction - apparently it has to get towed back upwind. In a catwalk walk off at least, kitesurfing would still win. Derek Zoolander had a similar problem: "I'm not an ambi-turner. It's a problem I had since I was a baby. I can't turn left." The Sail Rocket might be very, very good in one direction, meanwhile, we're all just pretty sure there's more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking."
Others raised the point that kiteboarders also couldn't sail back down the narrow channel in Namibia when they broke the speed record a while back, but that was irrelevant according to the comments further down the page. What was apparent, is that the cost involved with breaking the speed record by kiteboard was (and will be) far less than what it cost to make the Vestas Sailrocket 2. Not to mention the fact that the equipment used to break the record last time all fit into a backpack.
Not taking away from the extraordinary feat, there's some very interesting developments in the hydrofoil design, which utilises the phenomenon of water cavitation on the underside of the foil to eliminate drag. Something not able to be replicated on computers and analysis software, these guys had to simply test various foils until they found the current record breaking shape. You can bet there's a line of guys itching to have a look at the foils they used, because they could well be the answer to so many problems faced in the hydrodynamics world.
Exciting times, stay tuned to see what happens next in the race for the 60 knot average. Check out the video below of the record breaking run, just hearing the sheer terror in the skippers voice gives you a real sense of how fast it actually was...
Brisbane, QLD
