New WR speed??
Waiting for official confirmation. Question of margin.
Rules
6. MARGINS
In order to establish a new record the new elapsed time (corrected to 500 metres precisely) must improve on the existing record by a margin as follows:
a. On a course using land based transits and videorecorded timing:
Between records claimed on the same course and when the timing positions have not been moved and on equipment recording to 1/100th second, the margin is 1/50th second.
Old record 48.70 knots = 19.957 seconds for 500m
New Speed 49.04 knots = 19.819 seconds for 500m
0.138 seconds difference . Margin must be greater than 0.02 (1/50)
Therefore should be new WR.
Congrats Antoine.
I share your sentiments Stewie, but brace yourself for Hydroptere. I've heard it's the one to watch. It's a proper boat, it's even got a railing you can lean over to watch the ocean slip by below.
www.metacafe.com/watch/501669/hydroptere/
So the windsurfers are clawing their way back to where the kiters are...
Only 0.7 of a knot to go. At least the poley record is official.
New world record! YAY!!!
Wow that is impressive, going that fast without a KA sail is a super human effort. Good to see a simple craft like a windsurfer and a hard charging dude on board is still faster than some techo special boat looking thing designed not to fall apart until 2 seconds after the end of a speed run. So far all the boffins and their boats seem to have done is spend a lot of money and talk a lot theory, I suppose they have to wait for the right weather conditions which only occur once every 400 years or so.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Speedsailing World Records tumble in Saintes Maries de la Mer
Antoine Albeau (FRA, Starboard) and Patrik Diethelm (ITA, F2, North) have broken the existing speed sailing records today in Saintes Maries de la Mer, France.
After months of waiting for the big mistral winds, the speed canal at the shores of the mediterrean sea came to life again.
Strong mistral winds with 45-50 knots hit the speed strip in a perfect angle, and although the conditions were quite gusty several riders set personal best speeds.
Already the first runs of the "big three" Antoine Albeau, Patrik Diethelm and defending world record holder Finian Maynard (BVI, F2) showed, that this day would have the potential to become historic.
At 9:30 hours Patrik Diethelm was the first one making waves, setting a new world production speed record with his F2 Missile XS at 46.51 knots, subject to WSSRC ratification.
Around noon, 12:29 hours exactly, Frenchman Antoine Albeau hit a big gust and flew down the 1km man made canal. The scoreboard stopped at 49 knots, after extensive video checking with the observer from the World Speed Sailing Record Council, the speed was verified at 49.09 knots, 0.4 knots faster than the old record of Finian Maynard.
The riders then pushed for the elusive 50 knots mark, the magical barrier in speedsailing around the world, but til the end of the day no one was able to increase the previous performances.
this is from [email protected] 
begs the question if a hydrofoil can still be considered a boat. I certainly wouldn't want to be on that boat when it stacks.
Why?
It doesn't matter if the lift if produced by displacement (60' Crossbow ), Longshot (hydrofoil) or surface planning (windsurfer).
All three have held speedsailing records. Both planning and hydrofoil use hydrodynamic lift to keep the boat/board afloat. At least Hydroptere still floats when it is not moving unlike Antoine's 35x213 cm board.
hmmm..i know there is a plan to merge the sailing and kiting under the wssrc..if they(kiting) made a trench it'd sure be wide for deeper angles..i hate to say this but i think hydroptere has a really good chance since flat or rough seas doesn't really affect the craft so much and in just a couple of outings hit 45 easily that's incredible for such a big one
but congrats in advance to AA one hell of a run makes us all proud
Is the kite record not considered the wind speed record or was the kite record not appropriately ratified?
what is the current official mens record on a kite? anyone know?
after watching many kiting and windsurfing DVD's, from a spectators point of view, windsurfing seems to be alot like tennis where there is a large difference between the power or dynamics of the top mens tennis compared to the top womens tennis (absolutley no insult to womens sport intended here
) - with the williiams sisters probably being the closest to mens in tennis as far as physical strength, and the Marino twins in windsurfing - unlike kiting where the difference between the top mens and womens doesn't seem to be anywhere as great which would make kiting a terrific generic sport where absolutley everyone including all males and females have an equal chance at being the best at what they do when competing against one another regardless of sex
) - with the williiams sisters probably being the closest to mens in tennis as far as physical strength, and the Marino twins in windsurfing - unlike kiting where the difference between the top mens and womens doesn't seem to be anywhere as great which would make kiting a terrific generic sport where absolutley everyone including all males and females have an equal chance at being the best at what they do when competing against one another regardless of sex
