From Rob Munro

Wow! Luderitz went off the scale today and so did the internet!!!

Massive winds hit 2nd Lagoon today during the warm up to the Luderitz Speed challenge 2009! Not only were potential GPS records set and broken, but the wind took out the internet dish and the whole of the Luderitz area is now official cyber-blacked out!

BUT, the information via old-school-comms, the telephone is simply insane.... Sebastien Cattelan hit a VMax of 61.7kts and, subject to ratification, has set a new Record for the 10 Second average of 56.5kts including a 56.8 10 Second run and an even more important 53.058kts 500m just before the official start of the WSSRC event!... Read more

Hennie Bredenkamp and Basil Cambanis were on hand, as well as World Kitespeed Record holders Alex Caizergues and Sjoulkje Bredenkamp, who all went out in some serious winds hitting 48kts! Alex and Hennie were touching on the 58's VMax with 53's on the 10 second runs, but Hennie, who borrowed a new Bandit promptly destroyed it after his 2nd run, with what he muted as his "worst beating for years," went on to to Diaz Point with his sailboard, but couldn't keep the tail down using a 4.2 Stealth! Manu Taub trashed an 8m Bandit, Sophie has damaged her ankle and most were on the sidelines watching the day unfold due to the super strong winds. Sjoukje's 4.5m was too much to risk and Charlotte was tip-toeing down the strip. Luderitz showed it's teeth today and all are hoping for more to come!

Winds were solid all day, with a good angle, but spin drift and more, didn't stop Seb from using a 9m kite in winds close to 50 knots! What is to come for the month ahead??? Who knows, but it has certainly been preempted by major and World beating GPS speeds so far (subject to ratification!)

Keep an eye on www.gps-kitesurfing.com for sessions being posted and on www.luderitzspeed.com for all of the news from Luderitz (once the internet has been restored!)

Regards

Rob
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... nge?ref=mf

Sorry No Windsurfing info yet
Mike Pacey

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56628

hrm 62 knots of max ????
maybe it is time for us to use 4cm speed fins, or ?
so, let the kiters feels happy about that.
for me, kite it is different sport, and every sport need to have its records
so far we know who is the fastest windsurfer, are we?

Sheeet that's hammering

With all other sailing craft the rig and the board are measured as one unit.
The gps speeds we get from the Kites only appear to measure the speed of the craft(sailor) and not the rig(kite) which appears to be a long distance in front(at the start).
So when they are doing timing gates for the official record do they start timing as the first part of the rig goes through the start and finish timing as the last part of the craft or rig goes past the finishing gate?

elmo said...

The gates are at water level (or just above) so they measure what goes through them, they are generaly(?) linked to Video so there's little room for mistakes

If this is the case and the gates only get the board and rider and miss the rig all together,then I hope that they can raise their line of sight to put the Kites on a level playing field!

nebbian said...

Goo Screw said...
So when they are doing timing gates for the official record do they start timing as the first part of the rig goes through the start and finish timing as the last part of the craft or rig goes past the finishing gate?

I would have thunk that you measure from the same point on the craft, whether you're starting or finishing.

Many systems use a light beam at the start gate, that starts when it's interrupted... and the finish gate has a beam that stops the clock when the beam is interrupted.

So no matter what part of the craft hits the beam, it should be the same part for both gates, which will give you a pretty good indication of its speed.

If you have to wait till the whole craft goes through the gate before stopping then you'll have an inaccurate measure of its speed.

If that is the case,shouldn't the first thing to pass the start - finish gate (the front edge of the kite) start and finish the timing? ...rather than having some portion of your "yacht" well into the coarse before timing begins??

mathew said...

the propulsion mechanism needs to travel at about the same speed as the craft itself, where as with kites, that's not necessarily the case.



Without any other evidence, we could assume of the following:

- the kite is being used as part slingslot for the rider

this makes no sense at all. what are you basing these assumptions on? can you explain this "slingshot theory" of yours, and also how exactly the kite travels at a different speed to the rider.

have you invented a new set of physics laws, or is it just the sour grapes theory applied once again to speedsailing?

?

My attempt at an explaination of the "slingshot"effect Gooscrew is refering to is to compare it s to being whipped around a corner when waterskiing. You are travelling considerably faster than the boat that is towing you.
The implication is that you "slingshot" around the Kite that is towing you and are therefore moving faster than the kite.

So if this is correct the rider can travel the 500 meters faster than the kite.

Am I correct in my explanation gooscrew?

Some more physics:

If the kite is considered to the the part of the vessel that is timed, then it would be easy to get an artificially high speed by starting the course with the kite dead downwind, then whipping it forward to the edge of the wind window by the end of the course.

You're far better off by measuring the object with the highest mass (ie the rider).

Goo Screw said...



If some one can start the coarse doing around 5o knots in 40+ knots of wind with their kite dead downwind then good luck I say!!

Consider this:

250 metre lines, a stunt kite, and a guy treading water in the middle of the course.

I'm sure you can see the problem here.

The guy was travelling 60+knots across the water....that's ballsy and quick. as long as he is powered by the wind I dont think it matters how he got that speed, just a big congrats for getting it. just my opinion.

why poor ?
He has the official 10-sec-GPS-world-record now, subject to ratification by the WGPSSRC.