News Around the World
There is always plenty of eccentricity on show at Weymouth but it has also been the setting for many advances in the understanding and delivery of practical new speed sailing configurations. Free-thinking Geneva-based engineer Thomas Jundt admitted to having realised a childhood dream when he took part in Speed Week in 2010 (left) and achieved a best run of 23.24kt on Mirabaud LX –a minimal ‘flotation’ hull by now added to his original sinker chassis; while the regular outings of James Grogono’s Tornado-based Icarus made some substantial contributions to the understanding of foiling as we know it today in both monohulls and multihulls
50s look likely on the bearaways at the top mark in Barcelona in 2024. But with technology to burn, the new-generation racing foilers are
still a way short of the blistering Vestas Sailrocket 2 programme of Paul Larsen that set that astonishing run of 65.45kt over a 500m course at Namibia’s Walvis Bay back in 2012. It’s a 10-year record that could well stand for another 10. The jump in performance that Larsen achieved was remarkable,
having set a record of 59.23kt in the same year to claim the outright speed record off the kiteboard fraternity before going over 5kt faster on the big run itself. As Larsen said at the time: ‘What followed was magic… right down to the flock of flamingos parking alongside at the end. Walvis Bay kept us waiting until dusk but, perhaps accepting that we just weren’t going to give up, she delivered what we needed. I tried not to get too excited until I saw the numbers. Sailrocket 2 had strolled it in.’ Then there’s the land yacht record, currently held by Great
Britain’s, or more specifically Lymington’s, Richard Jenkins who clocked 202.9km/h (126.1mph) in Greenbird at Ivanpah Dry Lake in Nevada back in 2009. It’s a belter of a record and an achievement of mankind. Glenn Ashby, the Australian secret weapon in many a Team New
Zealand victory, is busy trying to better that mark out at Lake Gairdner in Australia with his ETNZ-backed Project Landspeed programme. It’s a tough ask and one of the hardest records to beat, with Mother Nature one of the big deciding factors. So speed is high on the sailing agenda, but hasn’t it always been?
If proof’s required it was heartening to see the 50th anniversary Weymouth Speed Week taking place in October with a tantalising forecast that saw records tumble for the famous harbour course. And if you wanted to trace the genesis of where sailing is at today, Speed Week served up some reminders this year in the form of Icarus – first sailed in 1972, last sailed in 1985 – back on the water, foiling beautifully at a respectable 18.37kt while the more modern Vampire foiling cat had hit the magic 30 earlier in the week. Speed sailing at Weymouth has, however, belonged to the wind-
surfers and kiteboards for more than a quarter of a century and this year’s event saw the latest incarnation of wingfoils being passed the baton. All week they blitzed back and forth with ‘oh so close’ runs being recorded but it wasn’t until, with just nine minutes left on the clock before the 4pm course shutdown on the final day, that Frenchman Bruno André clocked in a 30.05kt run to set an unofficial world record. This is very much just the start. The wingfoils have only just begun. The tale of the week, though, was in the windsurfers. For per-
spective, the outright record was set at the Luderitz Speed Challenge in Namibia on the ‘The Ditch’ by the legendary Björn Dunkerbeck
32 SEAHORSE
in 2021, the veteran’s veteran recording a 55.97kt blast over a two-second time burst. The Dane also averaged a speed of 54.536kt over a 100m run in hair-raising, near-perfect conditions. By contrast the Weymouth Speed Record is recorded over 500m and the record of 38.54kt, set by Swede Anders Bringdal, has stood since 2008. Step forward 21-year-old Scotty ‘Scooter’ Stallman, who all week
had been getting faster and faster, dialling into his equipment and generating lots of beach chatter about whether the Bringdal record would finally fall. Again, with just half an hour left to run of the week, and after a huge raincloud had finally cleared to usher in flat water and 40kt gusts, Stallman launched himself into the record books with a stunning 38.64kt run and stole, deservedly, all the headlines. Those headlines had been screaming since the opening day
about the kiteboarders and the perennial genius of James Longmuir, whose history at the event goes back to ‘accidentally’ winning Weymouth Speed Week on the very first time he entered in 2010 and whose record of 41.213kt had stood since 2019. On ‘windy’ Monday James set a marker of 41.19kt, a whisker short, but it was a result that he just couldn’t better all week. He will be back. But the success of Weymouth Speed Week – an event started
by Sir Tim Coleman of the mustard family franchise and James Grogono, the ‘Grandfather of Speed’ and the brains behind the Icarus project, back in 1972 – is in its camaraderie with a tight-knit but welcoming family of enthusiasts and eccentrics; though strange ‘Weymouth contraptions’ are much thinner on the ground these days (and as usual not all made it as far as the water). The future looks secure too given the encouraging performances
in the youth (under 18) division, with Zack Peaple hitting 31.81kt on a windsurfer, ahead of Alfie Wade recording 29.504kt on a kite- board and some notable performances in the wingfoils. The kids are coming fast. Meanwhile, the astonishing athlete that is Zara Davis from Bristol
continued her dominance in the women’s fleet winning Speed Week and scooping the women’s speed title for an incredible 11th time. Zara is still the outright women’s world record holder too, with a 500m run of 46.49kt set in Namibia in 2017. Finally to Karen Battye, the event’s loyal race officer who was
determined that the 50th anniversary week would be her last, was awarded the Portland Pot in recognition of her outstanding service to the event… before announcing that she will be back in 2023! And who can blame her? It’s a brilliant event and has been for
50 years. Summing up Weymouth Speed Week, Erik Beale, the first man ever to go over 40kt on a windsurfer, said: ‘Speed sailing has undergone so much change… Weymouth has continued to endure primarily due to the love for speed that the English speed sailors have. That crazy spirit of innovation that exists in Weymouth, and the pioneering spirit that similarly endures.’
IAN ROMAN
EASTLAND/ALAMY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126
