"Australian sailors Simon McKeon and Tim Daddo who made history in 1993 with the Lindsay Cunningham designed Yellow Pages, leapt back into the history books Thursday night when Macquarie Innovation powered down the Sandy Point speed course near Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, at an average speed of 50.43 knots."

www.sail-world.com/Australia/New-World-Speed-Record:-Macquarie-Innovation-breaks-50---hits-54-knots/55222


C'mon Stewie!

I don't really mind that a kiter holds the outright record, but that only my personal opinion and a debate that's been run many times over.

On the other hand I think it would be simply awesome if MI could take the world record back. Personally I think the MI record is much more of an achievement, I terms of pure design anyway. The kite/Windsurfing records are more just pure brawn over brains. The fact that MI can do over 50kts in 20ish kts of wind is just simply awesome!

Here's hoping they get the perfect wind and that perfect run and raise the benchmark up so say 55kts. If they do, I think it will be a while before anyone breaks that....and it won't be a windsurfer.

Edit: saw the other thread RE the crash....doh

WOD said...

On the other hand, given how tiny a board is they can also make a claim to being more brains than brawn, can't they?

When they can do > 50kts in 20kts of wind, then yes maybe they could. Currently in efficiency terms they are not even in the same ballpark as MI, tiny board or not.

Yes you are right you could approach that from various angles, but I simply mean going as fast as you can in the least possible amount of wind. Lets call it the boat speed/wind speed ratio. MI is at about 2.5:1 , kite record is about 1.2:1.

It's just too hard to know, from where I sit anyway, which record is purely more efficient in terms of 'energy in - energy out'. If you look at 'sail area' the ratio is about 5:1, going on your numbers which i'd say are ballpark. Potential lift per area is almost the opposite at about 1:5 as lift increases with the square of windspeed, so maybe they are a lot closer in terms of efficiency that I thought. However, there are so many assumptions in that 'calculation' that it's laughable so i'll just go with the boat speed/wind speed ratio Or 'MI goes almost the same speed in a shirtload less wind'

Both incredible achievements either way, just to me MI is more impressive, personally. No factual justification behind it.

i wont be impressed untill i see MI pull off a willy skipper.

Great boat, wonderful achievement, but why have these guys not found better wind on over 15 years of trying? Where is the 60 knots in 30 knots of wind?

WA Surf said...

Great boat, wonderful achievement, but why have these guys not found better wind on over 15 years of trying? Where is the 60 knots in 30 knots of wind?

Because:
1. The WSSRC rules are a heap of crap that severely restrict when you can actually take a run to claim a record. I have lost count of the days that would have been perfect for them but they were outside their booking period.

2. They have a quite small window of appropriate conditions. they need steady wind from the SW (Just the right angle) at 22-26knots. If it is gusting or squalling 30 knots it is too dangerous for them to run. If it is less than 20 knots they probably can't get to 50 knots. To give them credit, they have massively improved the controllability and therefore wind range of the craft over the last few years and I think it paid off for the 50 knots run.