The new absolute speed record belongs to the (adapted) Open 60 foiler Hydroptere. The record awaits ratification. More details on their website.

Nice one! Those guys have worked hard for that.

Who officially has the record at the moment?

Oh dear LORD.

(you know its coming)

Here you go, ya lazy bums.

http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/

Agreed.

Race to 60 next?

One strange thing: this specific record is not mentioned in their website.

I got the information through a message from Christophe Bourgeon, September 4 at 2:36pm

Le record de vitesse absolue est tombé !
l'Hydroptère vient de battre le record de vitesse absolue à la voile avec une moyenne de 51,49 noeuds sur 500 mètres.
Ce chiffre sera confirmé ce soir après dépouillement des mesures puis ratifié par le WSSRC.

????

Maybe they had not sobered up enough to to things like update the website????

There's a video from the record breaking day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-gdqo35os


What is the idea of the battens in the jib foot?

French strike again.

What I like is that it is a REAL boat, can sail on two tacks and go offshore. Not a specific record machine.

To keep a foot that long from luffing? In other words, helping the foot to keep it's shape, without fluttering. IMO.

At 54 seconds in the video, watch the jib leach. Any explanation? It doesn't appear to be coming off the mast spreaders. . . maybe the clutch slips? ?

Looks like an ease. Just easing around a highly loaded winch, probably.

This German fellow tries to break the speedlimit using a kite.
He always brings a camera for proof and captures everything including a wipeout at 45kts (remember that the water is only ankle-deep!).
His GPS is programmed to beep from a certain speed, very cool feature. Would like that on the cat as well.

Whats the scale on the display? It looks like its reading between 80-90 something.

km/h

why is wearing a banana outfit?