Has the 50 Knot Speed Barrier Been Broken or Not? Battle is raging in the speedsailing community at present over 46 year old German kitesurfer Tilmann Heinig's claims of having broken the coveted 50 knot speed barrier. On 26 January in Westerhever, Germany, sailing in flat water so shallow that it would barely cover your ankles, Heinig's GPS logged him as having covered 500m at an average speed of 50.9 knots in 46 knots of wind. Shortly after Heinig's run, video of him sailing at speed was published on YouTube (click here to see this - although we understand this was not of the actual run) while the story of his having broken the 50 knot barrier appeared in leading German newspapers Der Spiegel and Das Welt. Heinig's clams are controversial for two reasons. For decades now, the legitimacy of speed records has been arbitrated by the ISAF-recognised World Sailing Speed Record Council. No ISAF/WSSRC 'commissioner' was on hand to monitor Heinig's attempt. No course was defined (as required by WSSRC rules) between posts or transits ashore or by WSSRC-approved GPS survey equipment. In fact no attempt is likely to be made to apply to the WSSRC for this to become a new official world record... -- from The Daily Sail: www.thedailysail.com This from sbckiteboard.com : Heinig was in almost perfect conditions at Westerhever, Germany with winds between 35 and 45 knots. He also recorded a maximum speed of 55.2 knots (102 km/h)! It's a new GPS record and is recognized by gps-kitesurfing.com . This record sets the stage for kiteboarders to smash windsurfing's hold on the outright world speed record, as sanctioned by The World Sailing Speed Record Council. Naish Windsurfing team member Finian Maynard holds the current outright sailing speed record of 48.7 knots over a timed 500-meter course. The record was set at "Le Canal" near Saintes Maries de la Mer in 2005. The current official 500-meter kite speed record, 47.92 knots, was set by Alexandre Caizergues at Luderitz, Namibia in October, 2007. And from Cautionkites.com : www.cautionkites.com/web/news.html Those internet postings and published articles in the German print media have prompted this letter from Markus Schwendtner on behalf of the International Speed Windsurfing Class and the GPS-Speedsurfing Community to the WSSRC and ISAF (again, source here is TheDailySail.com ): "As ISAF International Class Association and in full support towards the WSSRC we feel the basic necessity to inform you about the following incident and kindly ask you to take further action. "Let me first state, that this is a joined initiative of the International Speed Windsurfing Class (ISWC) and the GPS-Speedsurfing Community (GPSSS), together representing more than 1500 speed sailors all around the world. "The facts: "He then published articles in Der Spiegel and Die Welt, Germanys biggest newspaper and magazine. He also published videos of 'The world record run' on several internet platforms like YouTube. Publications in big newspapers of other countries are not known to us at the moment, but most likely. In all those publications he clearly claimed the speed sailing world record to be broken by him. "This incident obviously challenges the ISAF and WSSRC very basically, questioning their right to exist, and directly attacks the current WSSRC world record holders, compromising their efforts to gain a ISAF/WSSRC recognized world record. It also directly affects their financial status and efforts. "We feel, that the ISAF/WSSRC must take immediate, strong action. If no action is taken, we are sure that we will be flooded with dubious record claims and seeing them published in the medias worldwide, making the WSSRC obsolete in no time. "We suggest strong action, clarifying the rights and responsibilities of ISAF/WSSRC for all time. The YouTube video of Tillman's run is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2gSQXy4-Mw
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