Kiteboarder Chases a Speed Title That He Lost to a Rocket-Shaped Boat

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/sports/kiteboarder-plots-new-course-for-speed-sailing-record.html

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EDGARTOWN, Mass. — On a frigid weekday in late October, a dozen of the fastest kiteboarders gathered here on a barren spit of beach that bounds Katama Bay on Martha’s Vineyard, eager to ride the blustery autumn winds that tear across the slate gray waters. To some residents, the winds are a noisy nuisance. For members of a tribe of kiteboarders who specialize in speed, they are bliss.

The group was here to participate in the North American Speed Sailing Championship Invitational, a two-week event in its second year. Kiteboarders from around the world, though mostly from France and the United States, compete to attain the fastest average time on a straight 250-meter course that hugs perilously close to shore.

“The Vineyard is an absolutely spectacular place for speed; it’s magical,” said Damien LeRoy of Florida, who competed for the $30,000 purse.

Since 1972, the world speed record in sailing has been sanctioned by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, part of the International Sailing Federation. For many years, kiteboarders were not included; the record was reserved for hulled craft. That changed in 2008, when the kiteboarder Sébastian Cattelan surpassed the long-sought 50-knot mark. After some debate, kiteboarding was allowed to compete for the record, and things have not been the same since.

Among the riders at the competition on Martha’s Vineyard last month was Rob Douglas, a brawny 41-year-old who, until recently, could claim the title of the fastest man under sail. Two years ago, Douglas rode a five-foot fiberglass board, powered by a 96-square-foot kite, down an artificial channel in Lüderitz, Namibia, and hit a speed of 55.65 knots, or 64.04 miles per hour.

But on Nov. 16 an unorthodox craft called the Vestas Sailrocket smashed that record on Walvis Bay in Namibia, hitting an average speed of 59.23 knots, more than 68 m.p.h. The record awaits ratification from the World Sailing Speed Record Council, but Douglas has conceded he has most likely lost his title, and he wants it back.

“I knew the news of Sailrocket was coming,” Douglas said. “A record like mine doesn’t stick around for very long, and the fact that I had it for two years was pretty big.”

The Vestas Sailrocket represents a radical design in the speed racing world, with two foils shaped like ax heads, a hull and a sail, giving it the appearance of a giant water bug. The Sailrocket was built in Britain at a cost of more than $300,000 by a team led by Paul Larsen, an Australian sailor who piloted the vehicle on its world-record effort. The Vestas team had been aggressively pursuing the record for a decade.

“I knew it was superfast,” Larsen said of his record run in a telephone interview from Namibia. “When I saw the number, I said that’s what 10 years of work looks like.”

To kiteboarders, though, the record merely raises the ante in a contest that has ignited passions in the small but competitive world of speed racing.

“This is an opportunity for me to be the hunter again,” Douglas said.

Douglas’s comeback will begin next week in Salin-de-Giraud, France, where the swift, biting-cold mistral can reach 60 knots, perhaps strong enough to allow a record. Douglas and Alex Caizergues, a kiteboarder and a former world-record holder who designed the course, will race it for two weeks starting Tuesday.

“We’re definitely in a position to fight back,” Douglas said about his effort to reclaim the record. “The new course has all the ingredients for speed.”

Douglas, a Vineyard resident and the chief executive of the Black Dog Company, a popular tavern and apparel outfit here, established himself as one of the most prominent figures in the fledgling sport with his breakthrough in 2010. For years, reaching speeds over 50 knots (about 57 m.p.h.) was something of a magical barrier.

Sailors on racing boats, hydrofoils and windsurfers long tried in vain to go 50 knots. Then, in 2008, Cattelan became the first sailor to do so with a 50.26-knot run over a 500-meter course at the Lüderitz Speed Challenge. But he was riding a kiteboard, and some in the sailing community did not consider that to be a form of sailing.

That Namibia has been the location of so many speed records is not a coincidence. Blistering hot winds blow off the Namib Desert and crash into cool air over Atlantic waters.

“They are very consistent winds,” said Sophie Routaboul, an organizer of the Lüderitz Speed Challenge. “That’s what brings people here.”

The winds also blast the coast at the perfect angle to allow speed sailors to achieve maximum efficiency as they point their kites and sails down the sandy coastline. Kiteboarders may have even more of an advantage at places like Lüderitz, where the construction of a narrow canal significantly reduces chop on the water, which is to sailors what bumps in the road are to Formula One drivers.

“No question it’s these man-made canals that are really driving the results for the outright world speed record,” Douglas said.

A new, longer canal was built this year in Lüderitz, placing it farther from the shore and offering racers a straighter course. Kiteboarders will get their first opportunity to challenge the world record on the course on Dec. 3.

The dangers of highway speeds on a kite are obvious, especially on courses like the one in Namibia, where riders are hemmed in on each side by berms of sand. Several racers have been injured on the course, including Douglas, who fell on the run after his record-breaking effort in 2010, tumbling head over heels for more than a hundred feet across the water and onto the sand. He shattered his wrist.

“It’s essentially like driving your car over the beach at 65 m.p.h. and jumping out,” Douglas said. “With those kinds of speeds, the risk level is high, but that’s kind of the life we chose. You do your best to manage it physically and mentally.”

Among the kiteboarding elite at the Vineyard, Douglas is somewhat of an anomaly. Most of the riders are slender and lithe. Douglas, who is over 6 feet and weighs 220 pounds, is built more like a fullback.

His coach, Mike Gebhardt, a former world champion windsurfer who turned to kiteboarding several years ago, said that Douglas’s bearish build is a reason for his success. Douglas’s size and strength, Gebhardt added, allow him to use larger kites that hold more wind and generate higher speeds. “He’s got the perfect build for speed,” Gebhardt said.

But does he have the perfect build for a new speed record?

“If I had to go to Vegas and place a bet, I’d say we’ll get it back,” he said.