Guy Cribb smashes the Around Hayling Record
by Ben Clothier & Guy Cribb 12 Jun 2020 15:01 BST
11 June 2020
Guy Cribb smashes the Around Hayling Record © Guy Cribb
Guy Cribb has just broken the Around Hayling Record in a 20-25 knot North Easterly on a windfoil. When short boards that went upwind were the new thing when Cribby established a record in 1992 of 56 minutes. Matt Wemms then took the record in 1997 with a time of 54 minutes 11 seconds.
On Thursday Cribby broke the 50 minute barrier with a time 49 minutes and 29 seconds for the 14.5 nautical mile circumnavigation.
Guy Cribb picks up the story: "With the recent developments of hydrofoiling, all personalised watersports have been transformed and none have benefitted as much as windsurfing. The Professional World Tour wind minimum for competition has been around 15 knots for the last thirty years. In 2020 that dropped to only 5 knots, such is the incredible performance boost from foils.
"Ben Clothier and I have been early adopters of the new technology and put it to very good use around Hayling Island, riding with the new Olympic Windsurfing foils which will be introduced at Paris 2024.
"The sailing world is well aware of hydrofoiling from the incredible America's Cup, but the expense of production and R&D is making them rather slow to enter a mass market. This is why windsurfing, kitesurfing and surfing are benefitting so much, because the smaller foils we need are easier to test and less expensive to produce.
"If sailors want to enjoy the freedom of sailing alone, the thrill of sailing at 30 knots, enjoying the highest tech equipment and pack it all into the back of a car, they could consider modern hydrofoil windsurfing, I would say, the purest and most evolved form of sailing."