The new American speed sailing record happened on November 14^th 2009 at 3:13 pm local or 8:13 EST.

PART 1

I started Saturday with a plan. Coach Gebhardt and I discussed the strategy days before when Wind Guru (weather forecast) first showed the 40 to 45 kts of south wind for Luderitz. We knew the tide was going to be best at approx. 1hour and 15 minutes after the 1:27 pm high tide in 2^nd lagoon. We had been watching the wind peak in Luderitz at around 2:30 for over 2 weeks………the tide and wind were going to come together to provide very fast conditions then, maybe even record conditions - and we would be waiting.

I launched early, at around 12:30 after the skipper’s meeting when the tide was coming up and made a few test runs in the 40’s…mid fleet speed, getting in about 25 minutes of warm up sailing. The 25 kts breeze and gusts to 30 were improving. A few quick warm ups to check the gear and check the mind. I planned to run the powerful 9 meter Crossbow 2010 from Cabrinha along with my smallest board oddly nicknamed “Big Dog” after the large artwork on the nose.

Weeks before I had sent brand new boards back to my shaper Mike Z. for a few last modifications and little did I know that the plans for the day would change. After a few sub par runs in the low 41’s and 42’s, I took notice of Alex Caizergues FRA and Seb Cattelan FRA who were posting first runs of 47 and 46kts……….the mind kicked in and started asking questions. “Yo, did you see Seb just mow down that 47 kt run like he was sleeping? Hey, Alex looked like he was bored with his 46 and just waiting to take over when the wind increases to 45kts”. Hey, Rob can you to pick up the pace? Just then my brother Jamie slipped a 43.5 run and the mind knows we have equipment problems. Not now!!!!

After sailing the 6 minutes up to the start, my next run topped out at 44 kts…….not too good if I wanted to stay close to the leaders as they made the push to the elusive 50’s. Not many sailors have made runs north of 50……actually only 5 in world history.

One more run at around 43 kts at approx. 1:30 and I jumped the chop killer and went to the pits to change up.. Coach was already there…he knew we had already been on the water forty minutes too long, burning the legs up too early……. things were not right and the plan was not being followed. I switched to my bigger board with more rocker, talked to coach briefly, hydrated and quickly went back out. I pushed a next run into the low 45’s…better but so was world record holder Alex who had moved into the 48’s.

I was burning the legs up that were going to be needed when the course got flatter and as wind built past 40kts………we were running out of time!

Part 2 - tbc tomorrow

Tags: American kitesurfing speed record, American outright sailing speed record, American Sailing record

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