Antoine Albeau has confirmed he will be returning to L?deritz this year for a month. Talk is that the speed channel is being rebuilt with a better direction to enable higher speeds. AA will still be on a windsurfer with some new fins and sails, foils still aren't fast enough. No doubt Vincent Valkenaers and Hans Kreisel will be there to compete with him.

Looks as if all the top speedsailors will be at La Palme this April 21-30 for the World Speed Championships being organised by the Prince of Speed!

that's awesome!

Luderitz channel angle was definitely off for the wind direction they got on the big wind days.

The race is on in the USA as well with the 100m Speed Challenge. Who is the fastest windsurfer in the USA in 2023?
www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=event&val=799

meanwhile, over in La France,
the ISWC Speed World Championship is on:

live.gps-speed.com/?fbclid=IwAR1YJdss7J7QuQil8aZRA3lEH-ZMjJFF_8sLaJ-QqzzSa4pxoiEDJIXIrX8

Great to see speed competitions returning and so many speedsailors turning up. 45 competitors recorded runs today.
Looks as if the ISWC is being revitalised with new leadership. Be nice to see more events.
AA was the fastest during the comp, but the wind increased afterwards and some better speeds were recorded then. Looks windy for the next few days on the course.
Fins are still the fastest; interesting with all the foil development work they still can't match the fin when the wind picks up.

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Roo said..
Great to see speed competitions returning and so many speedsailors turning up. 45 competitors recorded runs today.
Looks as if the ISWC is being revitalised with new leadership. Be nice to see more events.
AA was the fastest during the comp, but the wind increased afterwards and some better speeds were recorded then. Looks windy for the next few days on the course.
Fins are still the fastest; interesting with all the foil development work they still can't match the fin when the wind picks up.

From the number I see foils are lagging behind around 10-15 knots, depending on venue. That is a huge gap, that might take years to fill. But indeed, why? The kite foiling 500 world record is just 40.59 knots, which is slower than the windsurf (fin) nautical mile! What make kitefoil and windfoil slow? The instability?

possibly whetted area?

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Roo said..
Looks windy for the next few days on the course.
Fins are still the fastest; interesting with all the foil development work they still can't match the fin when the wind picks up.

i thought today (april 30) was the last day?

and yes, interesting how in big winds the fin is way faster. in the moderate winds of the first couple of days of competition there was more parity in speeds.

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duzzi said..

Roo said..
Great to see speed competitions returning and so many speedsailors turning up. 45 competitors recorded runs today.
Looks as if the ISWC is being revitalised with new leadership. Be nice to see more events.
AA was the fastest during the comp, but the wind increased afterwards and some better speeds were recorded then. Looks windy for the next few days on the course.
Fins are still the fastest; interesting with all the foil development work they still can't match the fin when the wind picks up.

From the number I see foils are lagging behind around 10-15 knots, depending on venue. That is a huge gap, that might take years to fill. But indeed, why? The kite foiling 500 world record is just 40.59 knots, which is slower than the windsurf (fin) nautical mile! What make kitefoil and windfoil slow? The instability?

Foil size and control.
I don't have any doubts foils can be made to do 60+ knots, they just need to be small and of a different configuration. ( think really small)
Just not sure how to control them, and the crashes will be very serious. Impact forces much much greater than 40 knot crash.
Need a superman to tame the beast, and make the leaps in design so that others can easily sail them. No way of solving the crash impact though. Perhaps it's better not to go there!

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duzzi said..
From the number I see foils are lagging behind around 10-15 knots, depending on venue. That is a huge gap, that might take years to fill. But indeed, why? The kite foiling 500 world record is just 40.59 knots, which is slower than the windsurf (fin) nautical mile! What make kitefoil and windfoil slow? The instability?

As your speed increases on a 'fin' board, your wetted area decreases and therefore wetted area drag reduces as well. Only the fin area is fixed, and that can be very small.

This is not the case with foiling. Surface area drag, once foiling, cannot reduce. Only way to go faster is to use smaller and smaller foils, at maximum flight height. And that does indeed lead to stability problems.

Fin will always be faster on a speed course than foiling in it's current design configuration.

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decrepit said..
possibly whetted area?

The concept of TPI as it was called in the old days 'thrust per inch' comes into play, the area generating the lift for planning becomes a law of diminishing returns.Too much surface area is a hinderance as is too little. In 10 knots or so nothing will beat a foiling moth for speed on all angles of the wind but at 25 knots they loose their advantage and something like a 49er or an 18 will out pace them. Same reason the harbour no longer has foiling ferries, they are just not efficient. Foils are the go to for kite, wing or windsurf up to a point of wind strength but then the fin is still king. That's why the pros are having such a battle at events like the DElfi trying to dial in their gear choice, around the cross over point its a real struggle for them to decide and some guys do better remaining on the foil some do better remaining on a fin.

Foils can be fast, the current Americas Cup foiling monohulls are hitting 55 knots quite easily. Sail rocket used a supercav foil and went 67 knots. Our current windsurf foiling setup will never be able to do that because we cannot keep the foil loaded up to get into the drag bucket range and hold the power required to do so. Wing loading is very important and both the Americas Cup and Sailrocket can load the foil up a lot more than we can. They also have adjustable flaps on the sails/wing and for AC on the foil allowing them to adjust for the best speed configuration.

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Roo said..
Foils can be fast, the current Americas Cup foiling monohulls are hitting 55 knots quite easily. Sail rocket used a supercav foil and went 67 knots. Our current windsurf foiling setup will never be able to do that because we cannot keep the foil loaded up to get into the drag bucket range and hold the power required to do so. Wing loading is very important and both the Americas Cup and Sailrocket can load the foil up a lot more than we can. They also have adjustable flaps on the sails/wing and for AC on the foil allowing them to adjust for the best speed configuration.

I agree but AC is dictated by design rules that have to be adhered to and the guys are pushing the limits. When there are no design rules limiting things all bets are off.
The power boat speed records are still set on plaining hulls albeit very limited contact with the water twin for'ed sponsons and a rear v with a down draft steering stabilising fin.
Maximum power, minimum weight, dead flat water etc, offshore power boats are still a v hull displacement plaining design, max power
heavier, well choppy ocean. But no foils.
1959 Donald Campbell set a water speed record of 429K/h in K7. The fastest boat today is Spirit of Australia at 551k/h not a massive improvement as a percentage in over 70 years. I think we are in for a long series of slight improvements in top speeds in all dicaplines but no great leaps forward are coming.