Speed Week

Tornado

Wouldn't it depend on the point of sail that the straight stretch of flat water was on?

Weymouth/Portsmouth SpeedWeek adjusts the course between arrays of 500 meter markers for very accurate timing. There is a website that goes back many years. However, the cost to participate removes casual sailors.
It would be way cool to have it on this side of the pond, but---maybe only Kansas would have reliable strong wind.
Or- Hood River I suppose. Any other suggestions?

OTOH Americans don't have many experimental sailcraft that would be appropriate for this high speed activity anymore. Ingenuity and invention have been largely lost. I guess the dumbed-down tubers and jetski crowd and their offspring will be satisfied buying rotomolded plastic floating crap- thingies from manufacturers in China.
Oh- I forgot the cuss words. #$^(*&@#$%$%^(*&^%$

Check out the Oct. issue of Outside Magazine for a short piece on one of the UK's more interesting contraptions. It should be on stands by mid September. The American attempt at breaking the 500-meter speed record is left to windsurfers. Robby Naish is probably the best chance in the U.S., but bigger sailors like Bjorn Dunkerbeck have a better shot at it. There's some real trash talking going on between the boarsailors and competitors on the purpose-built craft, and both sides have real experience on which to base their bluster. Top boardsailors have broken the 50-knot barrier, though they haven't averaged it for 500 meters as the record books require, and for 11 years, the Aussie-built Yellow Pages still holds the outright speed record. It'll be fun to see who tops 50 knots first.

Take a look at the Portsmouth table and you'll find some cats faster then the Tornado. However, in a straight line 500 meter sprint, I am 99.9% sure that the fastest production boat will be the Hobie Trifoiler.

But it's a tri.

Cheers,