Three Teams In Contention For The World Speed Sailing Record

The quest to be the first sailing boat to break the 50 knot barrier is hotting up with teams from Australia, France and Britain waiting for the right conditions.

At the moment the French team appear to be in pole position. They are at their base near Marseille in the south of France conducting trials and waiting for the right conditions for an attempt on the record. Their boat is a 60′ trimaran made of carbon fibre and titanium with a fairly conventional rig. The boat is equipped with hydrofoils and over a certain speed the hulls lift clear of the water and the boat flys along on the foils considerably reducing drag. l’Hydroptere has already reached a verified speed of 44.81 knots and the team has spent the last few months optimising the boat to break the 50 knot barrier.

The Australian team only launched their boat WotRocket in May. The project was conceived by by 18 foot skiff champion, Rolex Sydney Hobart veteran Sean Langman only four years ago. The carbon fibre craft has a 9m hull with two small foils and a crew pod on the end of a transverse beam. The boat is powered by a 9m rigid sail. The WotRocket team hope to use super cavitation technology, new to sailing craft, to break through the 50 knot barrier. According to the WotRocket website “supercavitation will in effect mean Wot Rocket flies in a gas bubble created by the outward deflection of water by a specially shaped nose cone and the expansion of gases from its fin and foil design. By keeping water from contacting the surface of the body of Wot Rocket, this will significantly reduce drag and allow extremely high speeds.”

The boat has been designed for wind speeds of 20-25 knots which they anticipate will be enough to break the record in conjunction with the reduced drag provided by supercavitation. The last few weeks have been spent learning to control the boat and making modifications. Whilst no spectacular speeds have been reported the team have lodged a notice of intention with the World Sailing Speed Council for an attempt in August.

The British team have spent five years developing their boat the Vestas Sailrocket. They have a 9m hull which utilises a supercavitating foil and has the control pod at the stern. The unusual wing sail is on a 7.5m cross beam to leeward of the main hull. The Vestas Sailrocket team have just returned from Walvis Bay in Namibia where they have been trialing their boat and making modifications, reaching sustained speeds of 38+ knots. They are currently finalising plans to return to Namibia in August to continue their quest.

All three teams are very aware that the race is on to be the first to break the 50 knot barrier as well as hold the record for the fastest sailing boat. As ever with sailing the weather conditions are the wild card so we will have wait and see who can pull it all together on the day.