The Lüderitz Speed Challenge is THE event for the speed sailors. They travel to Lüderitz in Namibia and pay quite a bit of money to speed down an artificial channel next to the sea to set national or records or to break the world records. Antoine Albeau’s record from 2015 is still not broken. The Frenchman holds the record for the fastest man windsurfer over 500m with 53.27kn (Link: Videos of Albeau’s world record). But UK speed lady Zara Davis broke the women’s speed record from Karin Jaggi (46.31kn) with a speed of 46.49 knots.
This year, Ben Proffitt travelled to Lüderitz, too and he set a fantastic time as a speed rookie. He managed to reach an average speed on 500m of 46.87 and a max. speed of over 50 knots, which is over 92km/h. His chase for the 50 knots is documented in his latest video.
He calls his video “Idiot’s Guide to Speed Sailing”, but we have to say he is the “master of understatement”. He went through a racing career as a kid, so he definitely is no “idiot” and has a racing background. And obviously it’s the best mental training to watch the fastest rider on tour, commentate their performance or follow them with the video cam.
But now, check out his video filmed and edited by Alfie Hart. We are not so much into speed sailing, but his story is very entertaining and it’s like the story of David against Goliath. David, in this case the featherweight Ben challenges the heavy weight Goliaths and he has some funny tips for better aerodynamics on the channel, too.
Ben Proffitt’s Speed Sailing performance in Lüderitz, Namibia 2017
Filmed and edited by Alfie Hart
