If all this talk of speed has given you some inspiration to give speed sailing a try, read on as world champion and world record holder Zara Davis gives you her tips.
Zara Davis – “Speed sailing in its basic form is easy, you just need a fairly fast slalom or big speed board, semi race sail and a GPS unit like a basic Garmin or Navi and a bit of wind and you can be king or queen of your home spot. But if you want to take it a bit more seriously and your budget can stretch to it, one of the new speed boards on the market like the Simmer Speed Demon that I used to break the women’s world record on last year, the Starboard iSonic, JP Speed and the Fanatic Falcon Speed are all excellent. If your budget won’t stretch to new, there are many older, no longer made, but still very quick bargain speed boards around second hand. For example the Tabou Manta 49 Dave White signature board or the seriously quick F2 Missile range, or the Mistral Speed 41, which still holds the production speed board record.
Sail wise you really need to be looking at a range of camber induced race sails with the right mast to go with them. Get it wrong and it’s like putting a Morris Minor engine in a Ferrari! For strong winds you will need a minimum of two sizes, (ideally three bridging these sizes) in the 6.5-6.2m and 5.8-5.4m range. Fin wise, get a couple of asymmetric fins (foil is only on one side, flat-ish on the other, these are quicker and you tend to only sail one way fast. 95% of speed spots are on starboard tack and depending upon your board size, anything from a 19 cm to 22 cm and a larger symmetric fin for fun and practice. Buy either the latest GW60 GPS watch or second hand a GT31, which you will need to put in a waterproof pouch and then you’re set. Go lay down some quick speeds and upload your tracks to www.gps-speedsurfing.com and see how you compare to the sailors in your area, country and the world.
As you get better and start topping the monthly tables in your country, it’s well worth looking at a weight jacket which means you can carry a bit of lead weight and the jacket neutralises it with built in buoyancy. This makes you faster by enabling you to hold down a bigger sail in the gusts and the extra weight helps you plane through the lulls. For more help and advice look on Facebook for speed sailing pages like UK Speedsailing and Weymouth speed week. Weymouth Speed week is a great place to go even for a few days to compete and if nothing else, talk speed with like-minded people. It’s always held early October at the National sailing academy. I hope this has given you the need for speed, see you on the rankings soon!
“ Speed sailing in its basic form is easy.”