My theory regarding what people choose to sail is that it's not about the speed. It's about the particular floating thing that you want to enjoy. If it were only about the speed we'd all be on windsurfers (and with forearms and thighs the size of fire hydrants).

Just go here:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/49742

Yeah - but it doesn't look like the trimaran was really giving it a go with the reefed main and sitting flat in the water. The crew wasn't really doing anything either.

I agree with Jake, the trimaran definitely has more potential, but of course one would have to risk these 3.000.000 <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It doesn't say who the windsurfer was...probably some weekend warrior on mediocre gear. Get some one like Bourn Dunkerbeck or Matt Pritchard on a race rig, and they would leave that tri in the wake crying like a little girl...LOL

I still remember vividly the huffing and puffing of the champion sailboarder and champion kite surfer when both were beaten across the line by a Tornado crew in a 2005 wager at the German boatshow.

"not enough wind or else we would have sailed circles around the tornado" ; was the much heard explanation. For surfers anything under 15 knots of wind equals no wind. I just called it bad sportmanship.




I seem to recall it was the french national champion. Indeed a nobody !

I thought a windsurfer had set the sailing speed record at about 49 mph in the French Trench? Or was that the Slingshot sailboat before it blew up?

I had talked to a designer several years ago about the theoretical top speed of an open 60 trimaran. He said based on sail area, displacement and drag numbers the top speed should be about 40-50 mph but the sea state won't allow it, they need about 30+ knots of wind and flat seas to do it. That just doesn't happen.

But in that video the trimaran is obviously limping along at half speed with a reefed main and on two hulls, not their prefered go-fast set up. I'm sure they could have easily passed the windsurfer if they had wanted to.

That was a windsurfer but was done so in a purposely built trench of water with some really high winds (the trench provided very flat water).

I remember back when this video came, but the details are fuzzy. However I am very upset about 'the Internet' just now. After 15 minutes of searching, I have been unable to find much information about this event. If 'the Internet' is to be our collective memory in the future, there certainly is room for improvement.
However, there is a german page giving the details of the event (the only one I could find).

"http://www.yacht.de/yo/yo_news/powerslave,id,812,nodeid,30.html"
Sorry for the poor link, I dont get the URL function to work after the upgrade. Cut and paste the whole thing and it works.


The sailor is Jochen Krauth, and he is a well known windsurfer who knows what he is doing. The tri is Bayer Cropscience, without their full crew (hence the small jib and reefed main).

The end of the movie is quite fitting. The tri is just gliding along, underpowered, while the windsurfer has met its limit and broken the mast. A bit more chop, and Jochen would have been more airborne (slow) than in the water.
Trying to match a windsurfer with a 60 foot ORMA tri in anything besides a reach on flat water would show the true relationship between their potential.


Funny enough, I think Jochen went on to sail professionally with an ORMA 60 team later on <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The german pages says that the Tri did win, getting up to 30 knots (saying they could still go faster), while the surfer reached 25, with 22 knots of wind.

Every year in the UK there is a speed event called weymouth speedweek, its a drag race down a 500m course and the windsurfers always beat the multihulls.

Have many 60 foot tris participated?

Funny enough that a catamaran has taken the world speed record from a tri (597,81NM in 24 hours, average speed 24,91 knots!).
Insane figures for a 60ft cat!

See website of Hydroplaneur

Because :

in 2004 "Orange II" 120ft Cat with Bruno Peyron, FRA, did 706.2nm in 24 hours that is an average speed of 29.42kts

And that is a SUSTAINED speed for 24 hours. The peaks were over 30 knots for sure.

Source : http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/distancerun.html

Wouter

I think he's quoting the SOLO 24 hour record, which is pretty amazing for 1 person for that long....

Tony,

Thanks for publishing that, I didn't realise that this boat was back up and running, I love this boat so much and was very disapointed when she took a tumble last year.

As for the windsurfer v multihull we did this question last year http://www.catsailor.com/forums/showflat...=true#Post59822

Gareth

Silly comparison, really, as Gareth says we`ve done this one.
Sustained speed of almost 30knots over 24 hours in open seas, well you NEED a 120ft cat to do that. But Hey, even the VOR70`s are getting close to that now!
The difference is that windsurfers can go like hell for short periods, on flat or even choppy water.
We have a very informal series of speed events on a small lake in Cape Town, it gets very choppy, yet the top speeds (sustained over 2 seconds, I think) on GPS readings, are in the 40knot range, fastest sailboard was just over 40knots, a kiteboarder took the record with 42.03knots. Wind was 25-30knots. Now, these are fun events, not taken too seriously, weekend non-professional sailors on good kit.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE bring a Hobie Tiger, Tornado, Inter20, whatever you think can do that speed in 3ft chop, 25-30knot very gusty winds. Just let me know you`ll be there, I`ll bring video camera. (Don`t bring Orma 60, lake is only about 200m wide !!)
It doesn`t matter which is faster, we are all having a complete blast at whatever the design limit of our craft, ask an Optimist sailor what a rush planing down a 7m swell offshore Durban can be.

MariCha IV; the former record holder for monohulls (before the current volvo ocean boats) was 140 ft. itself.

Besides the VOR70's only need to find another 26 % additional speed to equal the cat record. That is not too much to ask is it ? Relatively speaking this is only about the difference between a Hobie 14 and a Formula 18 racing cat.


Also 2 second long GPS readings are not at all reliable. I have a track that shows my doing 102 km/h for 3 seconds on my GPS.

Personally I always had very strong doubts about any boarder doing 40 knots while skipping over 3 ft chop. That is some major suspensions system you guys got there in your knee joints. Otherwise you are more airborn and in the water, which is slow.

I have no doubt that a windsurfer in a special prepared ditch or narrow lake with exactly the right conditions will beat any production racing beach catamaran in all-out speed. The question that interests me personally the most is what happens when the conditions are not absolutely windsurfer perfect in this sense. As with the German boat show wager. In my experience the windsurfers very quickly fall of their groove and become pretty average. Throw in some windward-leeward course (for which the racing cats are truly designed) and the comparison becomes alot different.

But I really do like theat video though.

With respect to ORMA 60 tri getting serious about speed take a look at this :

http://www.xs4all.nl/~whijink/Orma_tri_gpseries_2005.mpeg


Wouter

The French realy know how to play...... Shame there is nothing even close in OZ.

I have this footage along with several more hours of it on DVD. Very hard to pull yourself away from it.

which DVD is that, were did you get it, cost ? I'm interested in getting one myself.

Thanks

Wouter

It's called Formula 1. French Multihulls 2002.

Don't know where to get it from as a mate picked it up for me. Try the ORMA official site.