Malcolm Barnsley, VESTAS SAILROCKET’s However the winds which were her team to regain their crown. Despite fantastic
designer- "We are very pleased with the success, were, like SailRocket, her downfall effort to repair their craft and be back on
speeds achieved by VESTAS SAILROCKET as the squall built further and resulted in standby by 16 December they never had
at such an early stage of our official record l’Hydroptère’s capsizing though not in as the right winds and the right tides to make a
attempt period. Speeds are in line with our dramatic fashion as SailRocket. really serious attempt despite valiant efforts
predictions for the wind conditions and we on several days, including their
expect to go significantly faster in the near Alain Thébault final effort on 27 December,
future. The team has done a fantastic job of and his crew the last opportunity of this
mastering the operation and handling of this towed the ratification period.
highly specialised ‘point and shoot’ sailing trimaran, to Fos
dragster. sur Mer before Paul Larsen now has a new
being put into target to go for and I am sure
We have been aware of the potential for the dry dock to be he will do he can to raise the
‘lift off’ that occured yesterday, from an early recovered and bar still higher even if it means
stage in the project, and had already made repaire d. the odd piece of boat building
minor changes to steer away from it. We follows!
have several quick ways of further tuning Several crew
the geometry of VESTAS SAILROCKET and members suffered small injuries, but all We will be catching up with Paul Larsen at
are very confident a repeat of yesterdays will no doubt feel the joy at becoming the London Boat Show and will report on next
accident can be prevented." fastest sailboat in the world, subject to steps in our February digital edition.
The runs were supervised by speed ratification by the WSSRC. What record they
sailings governing body the WSSRC and have broken and what damage has been In the meantime have a look at
they ratified the record over 500m on 20 suffered to this foiling trimaran are not yet everything on:
December. They also agreed to extend their known.
record period to 27 December to allow the www.sailrocket.com
team more time to better their record. This left the door open to the Sailrocket www.hydroptere.com
As Paul Larsen sat in Namibia waiting for
the right winds to build on his world speed
record of which he had taken from the
L’Hydroptère team, Alain Thebault and his
team decided to win it back in style.
On 21 December his team set out for a
‘training run’ off Napoléon beach at Port-
Saint-Louis-du-Rhône, the speed base of
l’Hydroptère, certified by the WSSRC.
On her first full speed run, under full sail to
take full advantage of the established wind
of 35 – 38 knots with gusts up to 45 knots,
the speed progressively increased: 50, 55 “
Several crew members suffered small
injuries, but all will no doubt feel the joy at
and then a top speed of 61 knots! This
becoming the fastest sailboat in the world,
is the first sailing boat to reach such an
subject to ratification by the WSSRC
extraordinary speed.
”
28  MULTIHULL REVIEW : JANUARY 2009
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