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LÜDERITZ FINALLY DELIVERS!

Pete Davis reports from the windiest day so far in Lüderitz this season. After weeks of waiting, Lüderitz roared to life with its windiest day of the holding period so far. As the canal switched on, the fleet wasted no time posting some high speed runs, culminating in multiple runs soaring past the 50-knot barrier on the legendary 500-metre course. What began as a cautiously optimistic morning quickly turned into one of the standout speed days of the season so far…and one that proved, yet again, why Lüderitz remains the world’s ultimate arena for speed sailing.

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Pet Davis: “The 23rd of November was forecast to be the windiest day of the month so far here in Lüderitz and it did not disappoint. The riders were all on site early and rigged ready for skipper’s meeting at 11am and the wind started to kick in at 12 o’clock. The wind wasn’t too strong early on, but some impressive speeds were posted.

The early leader was Vincent Valkenaers (BEL) who went over 45 knots 500m with a very promising peak of almost 50 knots. He was soon joined by both Cedric Bordes and Antoine Albeau (FRA) and Gunnar Asmussen (GER) all posting runs well in excess of 45 knots but no one hitting 50 knot peaks! At this point and people were beginning to think that the day was not going to happen.

The girls Jenna Gibson (GBR) and Heidi Ulrich (SWI) who normally do well in the light winds we’re also struggling and posted runs in the high 30s low 40 knot range.

Then just before 4 o’clock, when everyone thought the day was not going to happen the wind moved up quite a few gears and started blowing in the 40 to 45 knot range and the elusive 50 knots 500 was quickly broken first by Gunnar, then Vincent shortly after.

CRASH

The riders where then given a reality check when Cedric had a massive crash breaking his mast in three places and even snapped his extension. Luckily for him he was not seriously injured. All he remembers was spinning out and then seeing light, dark, light, dark, light!

Being the true professional he got back to the starting area rigged another sail and went straight back down the canal. It obviously did not put off his French teammate either, as Antoine who then went and broke the 51 knot barrier over the 500m course. That was the fasted run of the day!

JENNA GIBSON

Jenna was really on form in the stronger winds and went over 46 knots twice with a fastest run of 46.31 knots and a peak speed of 48 knots. This Speed would’ve beaten the previous record holders Heidi’s record from a few years back. And on the day she was almost 2 knots ahead of Heidi’s top speeds.

All in all, it was a very good day for the speed specialists, which was well deserved after the long wait this year! It proved once again that Lüderitz is still the fastest place to speed sail on the planet!

Antoine’s work with the Zephyr Project to achieve such speeds in much lighter winds than we have in the past is obviously paying off. For example, On quite a few runs, he was experimenting with an aerodynamic helmet designed to cut down wind resistance once he was in the 50+ knot range!

With more wind forecast for tomorrow, (Monday) and still a week to go organisers and competitors are still hopeful that big records can be broken!”