Luderitz Speed Event

Zara Davis and fellow Simmer team rider Kevin Greenslade took first places at the UK speed championships which was a counting round of the ISWC world tour. These wins ensure Zara stays on top of the women's ranking of the ISWC and puts Kevin up the ranking at his 1st speed event.

The UKWA Speed Championships take place under the umbrella of the Dakine Weymouth Speed week and this year was a great success with racing every day. The event is extremely popular with over 120 people taking part.

Dakine Weymouth Speed Week is held in October to try and make the most of the prevailing SW winds. Unfortunately the winds were mainly moderate from the North this year which made Speed sailing tough in the harbour. This did not stop the competitors achieving some very high speeds in many cases over twice wind speed. Kevin and Zara were the victors on the windiest day, Tuesday in 16 to 18 knots of wind, Kevin was hitting over 34 knots and averaging 32.75 knots over the 500 metre course. The Winds were moderate for a speed event at 18 knots average (but the round counted as over 25% of the fleet went over 28 knots).

The big change this year was a move to using GT31's, GPS devices and GPS Results software to time and analyze the competitors. This enables the organisers to capture every run and give extremely accurate speeds of the riders. Pete one of the organisers said "Great event and the new timing system gives us so much more flexibility on course's and angles when the UK weather doesn't do what its meant to, and most importantly we get everyone's run no matter how slow of fast, it is a major improvement"

Zara's comment after the days racing was "The sails made the speed a lot easier to maintain in the choppy water and light winds as the forward pull of the 2010 race sails just keeps you planning through the lulls and chop this combined with my new Sonntag fins and Mistral boards meant I made the most of the wind we had".

Zara gets new speed production record out of Africa

Zara Davis achieves new women's production speed record on her Mistral speed board in Luderitz Namibia. She was invited to take part in the Luderitz Speed Challenge by her sponsor Anders Bringdal the new owner of Mistral Boards International.

She joined her fellow Mistral team members Anders, Farrel Oshea and Andrea Baldini, on the long flight to Cape Town. To then drive 1300km up the Skeleton Coast town of Luderitz to start the challenge. The event is run by the legendary kiter, Sebastian Catalan, who was the first sailor ever to break the 50 knot barrier at the site last year.

The site has traditionally been a speed kiter's paradise and not suitable for windsurfers due to the shallow depth at the bottom of the run. Windsurfers were encouraged to take part this year on the back of promises made by the organisers of an improved course and a cannel being dug in the shoreline and the course moved 70 metres down to make it a straighter 500m run.

The new layout worked exceptionally well for the top kiter's. On the 12th of October the first day of 40 to 45 knots of wind, Alex Caizergues on his 1st run down the course achieved an average speed of 54.1 knots which once ratified by the WSSRC will give him back his outright world record which was taken from him last year by the 60 foot Trimaran, Hydropter.

Unfortunately the course was not ideal for Windsurfers, the shallow water at the approach to the course meant that they could only get on the run at high water, 2 hours after Alex set his record. This combined with the sand bank built to windward half way down the course to reduce the chop, created a wind shadow for the sails for the last 250 metres of the run. This created a 500 metres of heaven and hell, the top smooth and fast and the bottom a gusty bucking bronco ride.

Despite the shortcomings of the site the team made the most of it with Zara setting a new Women's speed production record of 36.99 knots on her Mistral Speed board and Anders a new Swedish National record of 44.8 knots on his 42cm wide Speed prototype. Zara said "The run was amazing at the start, using my 5.0m Simmer race sail I was fully powered up. My GPS shows I was hitting almost 40 knots for the first 250 metres then it all went wrong when my sail was shadowed by the high bank to windward for rest of the run. This board for sure has the potential to take me over 40 knots over 500m given the right conditions"

Zara is now back in the UK, in time for the British championships at Weymouth Speed Week. We wish her well done and good luck.

Zara is sponsored by Mistral, Simmer, Dakine, Spartan, Sonntag fins and Walnut Grove Clinic

Anders Bringdal broke the Swedish National Windsurfing record

Swedish windsurfer Anders Bringdal has set a new Swedish national windsurfing record after only 90 minutes into the first day of the event. The existing record was 41.96 and his official recorded speed today was 43 knots. Today was meant to be a day of training and warming up in anticipation for the big winds forecast for next week.

As predicted by the event organisers, Sebastian Cattelan and Sophie Routaboul, this event promises to be the most exciting speed sailing event in the history of the sport.

9 Oct 2010 : It's Official - 3 New National Records on the 1st Day of Racing!!

The 1st National Speed Record was broken within minutes of the start of the Luderitz Speed Event 2010 on what was expected to be simply a training session in anticipation prior to the big winds forecast for next week.

Kite surfer Gavin Broadbent smashed the existing New Zealand national record within 13 minutes of the opening of the first day of the 2010 Luderitz Speed Challenge on Friday 8th October at 2nd Lagoon, Luderitz Bay, Namibia. After only 3 runs his official average speed over 500m was recorded at 44.51 knots - the previous record being 40.68 knots.

70 minutes later, also on his 3rd run, Swedish Windsurfer, Anders Bringdal broke the Swedish National Windsurfing record. The existing record was 41.96 and his official recorded speed was 42.9 knots.

Australian Kite surfer Tim Pumpa was the 3rd competitor of the day to set a new national record - Best Kite Speed record for Australia with an official speed of 40.72 knots. The previous record was 33.94 knots.

All new records are still to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC). The wind forecast for Friday is 30 knots. This will mark the 1st day of racing for the 2010 Luderitz Speed Challenge.

Anders Comment

First day of competition is behind us. With the knowledge of how the bay works we are hoping to see some good times during the upcoming week.
There are still a bunch of unanswered questions. Sailing in High Tide is ok but very choppy in the bottom end of the course. This high tide will not come back for another 2 weeks.
Now the Digger is at it and the top part when dug is 4m wide with a dept of we hope 40 cm..... no doubt it will be less as the tide goes over it.
We do not know what sort of wind we will have but if forecasts are good we will be in the 45-55 knot range.

First day result, I managed on the New 42cm Production proto to get a 43 knot run in.
Top half of the run was fast and I had a peak of 47,06 in the run. Given 30 knots of wind speed we feel optimistic on that we may be able to do something good down here.

The rest of the team was mostly testing the run with Farrel running in the 44 knot peak speed and about 40 knot runs. Zara ran on high 39's peak with a 500m just bellow 35 knots. Now its "Game on"....

The biggest hurdle will be the water condition and wether if it will be possible to get going in a good way in the canal. There will not be another option as the spring time will not be here.

Sailing in the canal will be a bit scary but for sure way fast if we can do it.......

So far I am confident in my material and I think I will be on the following kit.

Board, 42cm
Sail, 5,3-4,7
Fin Gasoil assy, 18-20 depending on the chop.

More to come as we sail in the canal on Monday night.....

Anders
Luderitz 2010

On Oct 13, 2010, Anders Bringdal broke with 44.80 knots, the OPEN OCEAN SPEED WORLD RECORD.

Further Mistral Riders

Zara Davis

Farrell Oshea

Andrea Baldini