A new outright Speed World Record, the British, Dutch and Australian (windsurfing) records along with a fantastic new production board world record have all been accomplished in the hard-core ‘French Trench’ here in the Camargue region of France.

What a fantastic but grueling two days of rugged and psychotic conditions that actually went unsailed a lot of the time because the wind was blowing too hard for the equipment that we all had. 5.0’s were huge just to give an idea of what we were facing and that is what the smallest sails were for the most part. In fact, a modern 4.0-4.4 would have been the preferable size for just about everyone as we got hit by afternoon stretches on both afternoons whereby there was a solid 50-knots gusting to 60 for literally two hours at a time.

Be jesus……….it was nuts and the lid literally flew off the top with the wind gods. Unfortunately the angle we were asking for was too much today (130-140) as big chop developed on the course making it very difficult to go fast.

Survival was the name of the game sometimes but breaking the record further requires calculated control, power and finesse, which is simply impossible to achieve in unison with the Mistral. The wind is far too irregular and twitchy to be super fast, fast enough for 50. We are looking for the big SE for that but it is clear that all the sailors were pretty happy with what we got and simply making it through the experience without injury!

Well done to the entire MOS team of sailors, organization and management for a job well done.

Hats off to Karin who came with .25 of a knot of the women’s outright record. She sailed so well in the hard conditions. Well done Dave White who shook off a bad accident a while back and set a very fast new GB and production record and mention should be made to Benny who proved that he is a real up and comer in speed with his instant Dutch record. Watch out for him. Steve showed his skills holding down a 5.4 on Saturday and he is keen for some further SE wind.

Now the focus turns to really turning it on and getting farther towards the ultimate…. 50.

It won’t be easy that is clear but we are on the right track so we stay to fight another day.

Yellow Pages was broken twice (once on Sat., once on Sun.) just to confirm that the time is now for windsurfers to take the level higher and higher.

Below are the best two times of the riders who ran in order of their finish and the new records.

11 F. Maynard BVI 46.82 46.60 (Outright)
22 D. Garrel FRA 44.21 43.23
63 D. White GB 44.03 43.44 (British and production board)
57 B. v.d Steen NL 43.71 43.02 (Dutch)
10 S. Allen AUS 43.48 42.09 (Australian windsurfing)
62 M.v.Meurs NL 42.11
24 J.B. Gautier FRA 40.55 40.20
44 T. Bielak FRA 39.66
114 K. Jaggi SUI 39.80 38.04
26 F. D’Urso ITA 39.35 38.96