Kiteboarders welcome but not wanted in Record Book

by Richard Gladwell on 26 Nov 2008
When is an Outright Sailing Speed record not an Outright Sailing Speed record?

When it's set by a Kiteboarder, that's when.

Or so, the World Speed Sailing Record Council would have us believe, following a decision by the Council of the International Sailing Federation at their just concluded Annual Meeting.

The effect of the decision is that the 50kt mark for the Outright Speed Record has not been broken. The World Speed Sailing Record Council have decided not to recognise speed sailing records set by Kiteboards as outright speed sailing records. This after the International Sailing Federation accepted kiteboards as part of the sport of sailing, the same as they do for windsurfing.

The comment on the WSSRC website says, at the end of a note ratifying the record of Sebastien Cattelan at 50.26kts as being that of a Kiteboarding record only and adds: 'Note that at the November Conference 2008, ISAF clarified that a kite-powered craft cannot be recognised as the holder of The World Sailing Speed Record.' A source close to the World Sailing Record Council told Sail-World that they did not understand the ISAF decision and were seeking an urgent meeting with the world body to resolve the issue.

The WSSRC decision comes after they imposed a minimum water depth limit (to prevent records being claimed off skim boards) however the latest move, if correctly reported, is odd to say the least as the history of kites in the world of speed sailing is long, and goes back to the 1970's with craft called Jacob's Ladder which was essentially a Tornado platform powered by a set of kites which could be multiplied to suit the windstrength.

This kite powered craft held the record on a 500-metre course (235 sq. ft. to 300 sq. ft. class) for six years with a speed of 25 knots.

According to ISAF, the Kiteboarder is not eligible for the Outright Speed Record while the boardsailer does qualify.

Now, it is not stated who holds the Outright Speed Record, but it is believed to be Antoine Albeau (FRA) at 49.06kts set on 5 March 2008. So the magical 50kt barrier remains unbroken if the current decision remains.

The ISAF decision is even more difficult to understand when the rules of the WSSRC state: 'A yacht shall sail by using only the wind and water to increase, maintain or decrease her speed'. Maybe ISAF doesn't consider a kiteboarder to be 'a yacht', but if that is the case why are they accepting records from kiteboards as a category at all?

Ours not to reason why....

But how can your sport be under the auspices of the International SAILING Federation, but that same sport not be eligible for Outright SPEED SAILING records ratified by that world body?

One gets the impression that the World Speed Sailing Record Council have a few issues with retracting record marks that have previously been confirmed, and while now not listing the Outright Speed record, they do list the fastest recorded speed, and that is by a Kiteboarder.

For an earlier story on the issue of speed records set by kiteboards in shallow water www.rya.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/newsroom/news/Pages/WSSRCrulingonkitesurfingrecords.aspx!click_here

For the historical list of speed records over a distance of 500m http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/content/view/14/16/!click_here