Sailing Speed Record

Andy

Simon and I thought we'd cracked 32 knots in the Daemon the other day.  It felt INCREDIBLY quick, and it was blowing it's nuts off, and we were two "heavy winds optimised" sailors sailing a boat designed for Olympic girls.  So in order to make sure it was not a spike, we screamed back uphill again, and popped the kite for a second run.  We nudged the speed 0.5 of a knot higher.  It felt just so goddam quick.  We really had convinced ourselves we'd done it, until we realised that the GPS was set to km/h, not knots.  We suddenly flet a bit daft as from convincing ourselves we'd done it, we realised hust how far of the mark we really were.

31 knots is stupidly fast.  The Avon Seariders I drive with a 60hp outboard on the back will not do anything like 31 knots, 1 up, in flat water, with a clean hull and me fiddling about with the trim to the nth degree whilst hiding behind the binnacle to keep the drag down.  It will manage low 20s.  If you are chasing a quick boat at that speed it seems gobsmacking just how hard you seem to have to push the RIB to keep up.

Don't get me wrong, 20knots is ber-luddy fast, I've done that in a Cherub and have the GPS track to prove it.  To then be overtaken by something else doing 11 knots more just seems ridiculous!! Sorry!!! 

31 knots must be a spike.  Open 60's occasionally get close to that (current Ecover record is around 32 knots).  Only big cats and tri's will consistently record speeds in the 30's.  Volvo 70's could spike speeds like that in the Southern Ocean but cannot reliably average it.  Even ORMA 60's have to have water ballast, canting rigs and curved lifting foils to reliably reach the 30's.

Dinghies aren't the best weapons for top speeds, they are too draggy and heavy to max out any records.  It is incredibly difficult to reach over 20 (49ers rarely reach it) and beyond that it becomes exponentially harder to get quicker due to the law of diminishing returns and all that. 

The best weapon for max speed in a dinghy was probably a 97 rules Cherub. The 2005 rigs IMHO are too big and too low aspect ratio for max speed. Round the track vmg is an entirely diferent affair with quite different requirements.

HI NickA - When the GPS was mounted on the boat on the odd look over it was reading a steady 28,29 odd knots - so the 31 was the max and most likely not a constant! But what was constant was the sheer F**kin speed!!

Yes, the boat was a 97 rules twin wire beast! with a fairly flat kite & like Jim said, in general a 97 rules cherub was SO fast in the strong stuff, espec one designed for it!!

HAHA!

Like I said dude, i really dont care if you dont believe me or not - next time it happens (I SOOO hope it does) Ill have the full gps track, and hopefully on video too!

For the mean time - WOOO 12ft skiff sailing cant be beaten!! & mate, since being back in plymouth havent even capsized!!  must not be trying hard enough!!