- The Canal
The Saintes Maries de la Mer Speed Canal, known to windsurfers as The Canal, is a man-made trench near the French Mediterranean coastal town Saintes Maries de la Mer, built especially for speed record breaking sailing by windsurfers. [http://www.provenceweb.fr/f/bouches/stmaries/stmaries.htm] [http://www.adonnante.com/diapothemes,25,fr,Vitesse-absolue]
The Canal, also called The French Trench [http://www.windsurfingmag.com/article.jsp?ID=39530] by the English-speaking community of Windsurfers, is 1,100 meters long and 30 meters wide, [http://www.continentseven.com/news2.php?newsid=386] in a West-Northwest/East-Southeast orientation planned to take advantage of the Marin and Mistral winds that blow in that location.
Three consecutive Outright Speed Sailing Records, measured on a 500 meter course, were set on The Canal by windsurfers in
2004 ,2005 and2008 :
* 49.09 knots (90.91 Km/h - 56.49 mph) by French windsurferAntoine Albeau , in March 2008. [http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/content/view/81/3/]
* The previous two records were held by the Irish born windsurferFinian Maynard , who competes for theBritish Virgin Islands , also on The Canal:
** A 48.70 knots record set on 10th April2005 , [http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/500.html]
** A 46.82 knots record (24.08 m/s or 53.88 mph) set on the 13th November2004 .In October 2008, The Canal's leading position on the world sailing map was taken by the
Lüderitz Speed Challenge inNamibia , when the "holy grail" 50-knot barrier of speed sailing was first broken by a kitesurfer. [cite web
url=http://www.luderitz-speed.com/
title=Luderitz Speed Challenge 2008
publisher=www.luderitz-speed.com
accessdate=2008-10-06
last=
first=]ee also
*
Speed sailing References
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