We reported yesterday that the wind had tempted sailors to venture out onto the canal at the Luderitz Speed Challenge. The breeze continued to increase and day 1 saw a decent amount of action. Read on for the report.
The wind was shy at the beginning of the morning, but from 12 am it started to increase gradually to reach 30-35 knots. Zara Davis (female windsurfer from the UK) showed straight away that she meant business and that breaking records was what she was here for! She improved with each run, reaching the British Female Speed Sailing Record (38.28 knots established by a kite surfer) ending with 40.95 knots on a 500m average, which is a new world record for windsurfing on production board (female). STILL NEEDS TO BE RATIFIED BY THE WSSRC. Lena Aylin Erdil followed suit and, still getting used to the speed sailing techniques, she reached 39.06 knots to establish the Turkish Female Record for the first time. STILL NEEDS TO BE RATIFIED BY THE WSSRC.
All the competitors were excited to take a few runs in the channel, testing their equipment and getting ready for good strong winds that are expected tomorrow.
Some of them have increased their best speed:
Christian Benzing: now 38.27 knots (was 35.26 knots)
Christian Bornemann: now 39.72 knots (was 39.11 knots)
Cédric Bordes also reached almost his best speed today: 45.09 knots (his best: 45.96)
We ended the day with the Swede Anders Bringdal reaching 46.33 kts.
Check out more images here
