WPNSA HOSTS DAKINE WEYMOUTH SPEED WEEK AND HARBOUR RECORD IS BROKEN

Dakine Weymouth Speed Week hosted by the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA), the 2012 Sailing Venue, has come to a close.  It has been an exciting week with over 100 competitors from 6 countries.

The objective of Weymouth Speed Week is to sail as fast as you can over the 500m course and beat the world record, which stands at a current absolute speed of 46.52 knots.  There has been strong competition throughout the week, and on Saturday, Anders Bringdal set a new harbour record by achieving a speed of 38.48 knots whilst the majority of competitors exceeded 30 knots.  Local Weymouth sailor and member of Skandia Team GBR Nick Dempsey competed early in the week and achieved a top speed of 35.86 knots.

Competitors have come to Weymouth from all corners of the globe and now, with a new record to beat, entrants are already signing up for next years’ event.  In addition to the Harbour record, for the first time at Dakine Weymouth Speed Week a competitor, Dave White, raced the course in three disciplines: sailboard, kiteboard and Tornado.

Sunday saw many of the juniors achieving some fantastic results with the fastest junior kite boarder recording a speed of 32.43 knots.  A special award was given to Henry Bloodworth, aged 10, who sailed in each session on Saturday but never managed to finish a run down the course.  Unfazed by this he competed again on Sunday and managed to complete 4 runs with his fastest at nearly 17 knots.

Chris Knight, Business Manager at WPNSA comments, ‘The week has proved to be exciting.  We have experienced some winds up to 35 knots plus gusts which has made things extremely interesting.  WPNSA are glad to have hosted this event and with the new harbour records we are really looking forward to next year.’