The ''Vestas Sailrocket'' was built to capture the sailing speed record competing in the B-class for 150 to 235 square feet of sail. It is piloted by the project leader Paul Larsen and sponsored by Danish

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each y ...

manufacturer

Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...

. In 2008 the first version reached a reported unofficial speed of , before crashing. After being upgraded to a second version, the ''Vestas Sailrocket 2'' began a campaign to break speed records in November 2012 off

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. On 12 November, it made a run over a distance, then on the 16th. It attained on a one-mile run on the 18th and simultaneously on 500m. On 24 November, with wind speeds at roughly , it ran the 500m course at with a peak. Both records are ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) for the 500m and the mile. A Swiss team of

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

university students and engineers, including members involved in the development of previous record-holder '' Hydroptère'', formed in October 2019 to develop a new

hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

boat, SP80, to exceed the ''Vestas Sailrocket 2'' record in 2022, with a target speed of 80 knots. As of April 2023, the speed record attempts were pushed back to 2024 and are scheduled to take place in Leucate.

References

External links

Official website
Hydrofoils Multihulls {{ship-stub

See also

References

External links