Just a quick note to mention the amazing hour by both Jacques van der Hout and Hans Kreisel. Thats not forgetting the Nautical Mile and distance on top.
This is amazing stuff. They came to the UK and showed us what they were made of at West Kirby on the 6th of October , and have now returned to their home spot at Grevelingenmeer - Zonnemaire, Netherlands.
I expect most people who read this will understand why I am writing about this achievement, but for those who do not know I will explain. Most windsurfers cruise across the wind at 20-25knots, anything upwind to get back to where you started from means the speed drops to 18-22knots (all figures are approximate and really depend on a variety of factors) Then when you turn obviously you reduce speed a lot (not if you are one of these two guys though!).
In a lot of places each tack is only about a nautical mile if you are lucky, meaning the hour speeds can include around 25-30gybes. Any failed gybe can ruin an attempt, especially if the rig ends up in a bad position for recovery. Often though you should just carry on regardless, sods law always happens to me with hour attempts and I fail a gybe after 30mins or so and give up, next time I wont after reading what Hans Kreisel had to say;
To get an hour average speed of 28knots is phenomenal. For those in the UK this is 32mph, and for the rest of the sensible world (I teach maths and wish us Brits would change over to metric!) its about 50km/h. A peak of 43+ knots within the hour means he must have gone downwind a touch and that will in turn mean an upwind leg over chop which considerably reduced speed. Reports I have heard from their visit to West Kirby stated that they were the only ones that even braved the upwind leg regularly. This shows great skill and courage in strong winds.
Really gusty and shifting had a hard time. Even sailed in the dark had a fun time and the hour is surprising had 3crashes so i'm happy with the results and a nice peak of 43+ knots during the hour. My Nautical is including a jibe
To get an hour average speed of 28knots is phenomenal. For those in the UK this is 32mph, and for the rest of the sensible world (I teach maths and wish us Brits would change over to metric!) its about 50km/h. A peak of 43+ knots within the hour means he must have gone downwind a touch and that will in turn mean an upwind leg over chop which considerably reduced speed. Reports I have heard from their visit to West Kirby stated that they were the only ones that even braved the upwind leg regularly. This shows great skill and courage in strong winds.
Jacques has uploaded a video of his 27.68 knot alpha. I really wish we had spots like this in the UK, with long 'chop' breaks allowing for perfect flat water, although I am sure these fish eye lens cameras flatten the water considerably.
Wishing you Good Speed and Winds (apart from the Grevelingen Chop Team ;-) - 'The Bus'
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