THERE IS NO 50 KNOT RECORD… YET
The World Sailing Speed Record (WSSR) Council is the lone authorizing authority
for record claims. Established by the International Sailing Federation in 1972,
their mission is to maintain consistent standards for a variety of record
setting categories. The quest for the outright world speed sailing record is
being played out on several fronts, with recent excitement coming from Luderitz
in Namibia where kiteboarders were displaying that they are currently the
fastest.

American kitesurfer Rob Douglas set a new speed record of 49.84 at the Luderitz
speed strip on September 19th, which was later ratified by the WSSR, beating out
the previous record of 49.09 kts set earlier in the year by windsurfer Antoine
Albeau (FRA). During the same speed event that Douglas set his record, called
the Lüderitz Speed Challenge, the event announcement came on October 3rd that
Sebastien Cattelan of France become the first human being to sail at more than
50 knots, a world record he held for only 24 hours before compatriot Alexandre
Caizergues snatched it away with a top speed of 50.57 knots.

The speed set by Caizergues was announced as the new speed record, but the only
problem is that over a month later, no formal claim for the record has been
requested of WSSR, who is still awaiting the documentation from the event
organizers. According to the record books, Douglas is still the holder of the
outright world speed sailing record. -- Scuttleblog,
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2008/11/no-record-yet.html