Gemini hits 29.2 knots
Just a test drive!
Dahab in Egypt provides a wonderful mixture of sailing conditions-one of which is a flat water stretch.
On November 30th, two sailors from the UK, Allan Hilton and Nick Russell thought they would end their weeks trip out to the ‘Neilson’ centre having fun on the new Starboard GEMINI tandem board.
‘ It was our last day at the centre and having stayed out rather too late the night before we decided to have some less strenuous fun on the tandem. Neither of us had sailled one and we didn’t feel like taking life too seriously’ says Allan ” but by the time we got out in the bay we realized we were actually sailing past most of the other windsurfers on the water. We had two Tushingham 7.8m Lightning sails on board, and were flying.” Nick takes up the story. ”
The wind was picking up and Allan and I had mastered taking the board in just 15 minutes with a few bruises, but I could see the speed strip was working upwind. We collected the Garman GPS watch from the centre and headed for it. We tweaked the sails for the downwind run and on our first run hit 29.2 knots. I have no idea what we did right but we were screaming past windsurfers on speed orientated boards. Over fifteen meters of sail probably worked in our advantage. I live in Weymouth and work at Windtek-so I’ve ordered one for the shop and will crack 30 knots on the Portland course-can’t wait!.
