Kite · Foil & Olympics
2017
The fastest kitesurfer
Alexandre Caizergues sails 57.97 knots over 500 metres at Salin-de-Giraud, a new kite speed record.
57.97knots
Alexandre Caizergues, Salin-de-Giraud, 13 November 2017
After Rob Douglas’s 55.65 knots at Lüderitz in 2010, the kite speed record moved to France. Alexandre Caizergues, one of the two riders who had first passed 50 knots in 2008, kept chasing it.
In November 2013 he sailed 56.62 knots at Salin-de-Giraud in France. Four years later he came back to the same place for the Salt and Speed event. On 13 November 2017 he sailed 57.97 knots over the 500-metre course, about 107 kilometres an hour, and beat his own record by more than a knot.
The World Sailing Speed Record Council, which checks and ratifies speed records, confirmed the new KiteSail record at the end of the month.
By then the outright sailing record belonged to Vestas Sailrocket 2, a craft built only for speed, at 65.45 knots since 2012.