WindsurfingSA news

Antoine Albeau (FRA, Starboard) and Karin Jaggi (SUI, F2, North) are the speed windsurfing world champions 2008, after 7 rounds of speedsailing in challenging conditions.

The event started with challenging conditions as the wind was pretty light in correlation to the deep angle of the course. The top speeds came close to 40 knots, with a close battle between Albeau and Diethelm. With improving wind speeds Dunkerbeck came closer, but was never able to really challenge the top duo. The places behind were hardly fought for between Maynard and the Moussilmani brothers, Slalom specialists Dan Ellis (GBR, Fanatic) and Peter Volwater (F2, North) as well as living legend Anders Bringdal (SWE) completing the top 10.
 
With higher wind speeds and the high tide in the afternoon the top speeds improved over the curse of the week, with Antoine Albeau again setting the top speed of the event with 40.54 knots average over the 500m speedcourse.

The womens competition was ever more thrilling, with a tie in points after 4 races between Karin Jaggi and Valerie Ghibaudo. Karin was then able to take advantage of the harder conditions towards the end of the competition, and closely snatched the victory. The final place on the podium was open for a long time, with Zara Davis (GBR) retiring after round 6 it became close between Marion Raisi and Emanuelle Duby (FRA), with the better end for Marion.

Australia’s Chris Lockwood (Carbon Art, KA Sails) came in at 12th,
and recorded a speed of 38.35knots

Daily reports and pictures free of charge are available
at www.speedworldcup.com. Also see Results PDF

The first race of the ’08 speedwindsurfing world championship is a fact and right from the start it was a good one with a double extension. Antoine Albeau and Valerie Ghibaudo are the winners of the first round.

At the mandatory skippersmeeting this morning at 10:00, all racers received, besides the last instructions, their personal GPS-device which identifies them during the race and enables a world wide audience to follow the racing action live on the internet. For the first time in the history of speedwindsurfing the official WSSRC timing system is combined with GPS timing. Thus all tracks of the speedsailors can be followed on the live spectator in real  time.

The first possible start was set at 12:00 am, but needed to be postponed by one hour as the wind was not suitable at that time. The combination of an average windspeed of 23-24 kts and a wind angle of 135° resulted in a top speed  for winner Antoine Albeau of 37.01 kts. Quite impressive in these tough conditions. The fastest women was Valerie Ghibaudo, she sailed an average speed of 31.39 kts over 500m. So the Frenchies did it again!

Tomorrow we expect the same wind conditions, but the tide will go down even a little bit more. The skippersmeeting will be held at 10:00 o’clock again, with a first possible start at 11:00 hours.

The Speed Windsurfing World Championship continues until the 2nd of August, with daily races scheduled from 10:00 hours on. The race can be followed live on the internet at www.speedworldcup.com

March 6th: 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.

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.

Links:
www.antoinealbeau.com - Antoine Albeau
www.patrikdiethelm.com - Patrik Diethelm
www.speedworldcup.com - Official Site
www.windsurfjournal.com - videos