Faster, faster

There are currently several well-researched but quite different projects underway with the common goal of raising the outright world sailing speed record. Australian-born Open 60 and MaxCat veteran Paul Larsen describes progress with his Sailrocket campaign

The outright world speed sailing record has been receiving a lot of attention from various dedicated groups around the world. It is certainly a fascinating endeavour, which becomes more and more interesting the more involved you get.

The current record of 46.52kt, set by Yellow Pages Endeavour in 1993, is ripe to be broken; in fact it very nearly was in a recent assault by windsurfer Finian Maynard down in the 'French trench' (Seahorse Feb). Maynard raised the sailboarding record to within 0.2kt of the outright record and showcased the ability of these beautifully simple craft to reclaim the title.

At Sailrocket we are now finishing off our own boat in preparation for a full assault through 2004. Our faith in the original design has only been strengthened since we committed to the build two years ago. Here is an insight into the issues facing all campaigns and how we chose to tackle them.

To read the remainder of this article please go to the February 2004 edition of Seahorse, available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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