no. 33. January 2008
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Driven by Wind started The Driven by Wind attempt set up by Dave White started this month. Dave is super motivated to make it a great event and is damaging his own chances all the time with his perfectionism. He wants to do everything himself and apart from speeding through the course we saw him knee deep covered in the mud with heavy timing equipment to make sure everything worked as it should. He was still sailing in great style and managed some solid runs ending in an event speed very close to Finian who is the true master up till now. The fist try was at the very first possible sailing day and during this try Dirk Doppenberg, my Dutch Maui Sails team colleague was in great form. I was a little unlucky because I crashed and couldn’t get back on the course while the wind at it’s best. I was stuck in leeward with a sail size that was too small. The second try went a lot better and I managed to do some good peak speeds. For results see: www.drivenbywind.com and www.gps-speedsurfing.com I am sure the speeds set up till now will be bettered substantially by nearly all. Conditions haven’t been perfect to say the least and still some blistering runs could be seen. Some very nice shots made by John Carter can be watched on the Driven by Wind site. They clearly show the challenging conditions. I had the chance to sail the TR-4 5.1 for the first time during a race and it’s clear the new sails rock. Easy on the hands, super soft feel, nice back hand and superb accelleration are the keywords that come to mind. The event is the first to show live GPS speeds and semi live gated (so true course) 500 meter standings based on GPS measurements. We, the GPS crew, support the event with the help of a firm called Championchip. Although we faced some software problems showing live 5x10 second readings all data was stored and the outcome is very positive. We will present our findings to the WSSRC after the event has ended and we are sure our standards will prove to be very high. We are learning with each race and the second try we tested two four Herz devices (measuring four times a second) with very good results. If you are interested to watch us live please watch both websites for updates on the forecasts. Martin van Meurs Photo : Mart Kuperij
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