Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer has been waiting for a day like this for a long time... 40 to 45 knots, gusts up to 50 knots forecast, a red alert from the French weather forecasters and the best riders in the world on site, nothing more needed to start the speed counters buwwing ! Patrik Diethelm and Karin Jaggi just back from Thailand, Antoine Albeau from Florida... Already in France for a few days Finian Maynard, defending recordùan is also present. Likewise Cédric Bordes, Valérie Ghibaudo, David Garrel, most of the big speed specialists there... And the tone is set from first light, 5.0 m2 sails maximum and special speed boards between 34 and 37cm wide, a day for breaking records if ever there was one !
Already blowing hard through the night, the wind picks up even more as the canal opens at about 8.00am... And just 45 minutes later Antoine Albeau puts down the first big marker of the day with a run of 47.10 knots ! But the man in form during the morning session was undoubtedly Patrik Diethelm, putting together run after run on his F2 Missile XS production board... And after a good warm up ITA-120 puts down a marker of his own, notching 46.57 knots and with it the new production board record with the morning only just under way. Also riding production gear, Cyril Moussilmani also scores well with 44.46 knots, beating the previous 44.10 record held by Diethelm.
As well as very strong the wind blows in very gusty posing all kinds of problems in the launch zone... After a couple of test runs, many of the riders leave the canel leaving it free for Albeau, Maynard and Diethelm ! Plenty of falls and spin-outs follow but the wind begins to stabilise... Just before midday Albeau switches on the after burners with a new speed of 48.14 knots. The rumours start flyiong faster than ths sand and FRA-192, ancouraged by his coach and dad Jean-Marie, takes charge of the moment to push one more time a little harder still. The speedometer reads 48.5 knots ! But after verification the speed is upgraded to a new world record, 49.09 knots !!! |
| There's plenty of suspense. For the record to be validated it must fall withing the WSSRC margins. A telephone call and second video verification later and the news becomes official, Antoine Albeau is the new all-category world sailing speed record holder !!!
Already some way off the pace during thez first two MOS sessions, Finian Maynard is determined and tries to reclaim his record but never bettrs 45.85 knots. The afternoon rolls on, there's still plenty of tension on site but the violent strength of the conditions is enough to discourage all but the bravest, with the award for the biggest disappointment of the day going to David Garrel, seeing his rig blownaway out to sea off the beach during one of the day's biggest gusts... And to round off this superb day of competition, British rider Farrel O'Shea claimed a new Biritsh speed record with 44.34 knots !
At 6.30pm, after a last run 'for the traning', Albeau comes back in exhausted by happy... 3 record attempts on the canal, and he's proved what very few people actually doubted at all, that he's quite simply the fastest man alive, as well as a superb all round sailor and triple world champion... Hats off to Mr Albeau !Masters of Speed 5th March 2008 rankings
1/ Antoine Albeau : 49.09 knots
2/ Patrik Diethelm : 46.57 knots
3/ Finian Maynard : 45.85 knots
4/ Cyril Moussilmani : 44.46 knots
5/ Farrel Oshea : 44.34 knots
6/ John Smalley : 44.22 knots
7/ Cédric Bordes : 44.22 knots
8/ David Garrel : 42.71 knots
9/ Andrea Baldini : 35.81 knots
10/ Valérie Ghibaudo : 35.24 knots |
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