Sail speed record: Swiss 80-knot boat almost ready

The Swiss team from Lausanne has been working on the SP 80 project since 2018, which aims to break the existing speed record of 65.45 knots set by Australian Paul Larsen and his "Vestas Sailrocket 2" in 2012. The Swiss are taking a rather ambitious approach and want to break the 80-knot mark straight away. They plan to achieve this with a kite-powered boat that rests on three hulls that barely touch the water, similar to the "Sailrocket".

They developed a model version for this purpose, which has now been further developed after testing and now has a boat with a cockpit for two pilots. One person steers the boat using a steering wheel with a central rudder blade, while a crew member sits behind them and controls the kite's position in relation to the wind. "At 150 km/h, it's important to concentrate fully on the task at hand," says pilot and project co-founder Benoît Gaudiot, explaining the division of labour that has now been implemented.

The boat therefore had to be larger than planned - the hull is now 10 metres long and 7 metres wide. It has just been completed at Persico in Italy and is now travelling to Switzerland, where the installation of the steering systems will begin. The outriggers and foils will then be built, and the boat is due to be completed in autumn this year. This will be followed by initial tests; record-breaking trials will then begin in summer 2023 in the south of France, presumably on the Côte d'Azur.

The team paid a lot of attention to protecting the two pilots: The control capsule with the two seats is designed to withstand forces of 50g and is covered with aramid on the inside to protect the pilots from carbon fibre splinters in the event of a crash. These are very sharp-edged and also toxic and can cause nasty inflammation in the body. Both pilots sit in bucket seats and are secured with 6-point harnesses and helmets.

Paul Larsen's long road to the existing record had shown that this was necessary. The Australian had been working on two versions of the boat for almost ten years and also achieved a spectacular take-off during record attempts off Namibia, in which "Vestas Sailrocket" flipped over in the air at over 50 knots. More information on the Website of the team.