Never ceases to amaze me seeing just how fast these guys go. Reminds me of that video of Slowboat hitting 50 knots at SP where someone's board flies through the air just after he passes them sitting on the waters edge.

PS - never got to see any footage of Spotty's et al runs from last year. I recall talk about it being videoed - was it ever posted?
Could make for a great thread with videos of any runs over 45knots.

stringer said...

will he be ejected from the NP/JP mob for defecting from NP!?!

He's signed with the Pinna's

How embarrasament, the zecrets out allready

Yeah , I heard that too from someone who was there... :-))

Interesting google map. Censorship of naval areas(?) by Dutch goverment?

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slowboat said...

Id be happy with 48 on the dial

Great speeds for sure.

How do you really measure who is the fastest?
(this isn't "brand" debate, could apply to any sessions)
Pete could have hooked onto the best gusts while he was there and if the conditions improved later Ben could have got onto more of these better gusts, by the end of the year positions will be sorted out.
Brings me back to the subject of how do you really measure who is the fastest on a given day? sailor A could be 1-2knots faster than sailor B all day, sailor B happens to hook onto the only descent gust of the day and comes out on top, does this make sailor B faster or just "lucky" ?

I'm with you mineral, unless the the two sailors are on the same gust running down the course at the same time you cannot tell. But awesome speeds.

I think 5x10 is the best measure of performance on a day. Sometimes it really is a lot of luck to time the squalls correctly. The fastest run is a nice glory category but it doesnt separate a one-off lucky gust from the rest of the day. My 2sec/10sec PB was a very lucky gust- there was even a video camera on the beach to capture it

In ISWC competitions the "lucky gust" factor comes into it a lot for a result in a round, since they only count the best 2 runs for each round, but this becomes less of an issue once you get 5 or more rounds in. In Karpathos, its common for there to be only one or two solid gusts to come through in a round, and only a handful of people will be in the right place in the queue to nab it. That makes a huge difference to the results. I suggested to the pres that they should increase the number of runs averaged per round to 5.

My comment earlier on Benny's big day was that from the indications of speeds being done "at the same time" => similar conditions, Ben ~might~ have had some competition overall had Pete not had a plane to catch :)

Maybe a better way to measure performance is to discard the best 2 runs and cound the 3rd to 7th best times. That would kill off the lucky gust factor entirely.

The only way that i see to eliminate the "lucky gust" is doing the distance depending on your course where you sail , is it a 250 or 500 or the famous NM !!!!

And dont forget there is no 1 lucky gust there are many of them that will come through , you just have to be there...

I have never sat on a good strong continous gust to crack a 500m run which then i have to adjust and squeeze to get the best run i can to get a decent result.

Its a pity alot of people depend on 2 sec runs instead of trying to make themselves to go quicker over a certain distance which at the end makes you a better sailor and more consistant and thats what speed is all about!!!!

Even the 5 by 10sec can have a few lucky gusts but then again it will even it all out.

It is still better than a 2sec run for me that has no meaning to it , yeah its good to brag on the forum if you got a good 2 sec run but that does not determine how fast you really went over a good 250 or 500m.

For me a 2 sec is only good to compare on that run how far i am off a 250 or 500m run and the closer the numbers are the better i am preforming!!!!

As for the sail debute for me all race sails will go fast off the wind if properly rigged and tunned - combining board , fin and SAILOR!!!! And that has been proven....