Windsurf · Funboard revolution
1986
A windsurfer becomes the fastest sailor on earth
At Sotavento on Fuerteventura, Pascal Maka sails 38.86 knots and takes the outright sailing speed record from the catamaran Crossbow II.
38.86knots
Pascal Maka, Sotavento, Fuerteventura, 21 July 1986
For years the fastest sailing craft in the world was Crossbow II, a catamaran built for one purpose: speed. Its record stood at 36 knots.
On 21 July 1986, at Sotavento on the south-east coast of Fuerteventura, the French windsurfer Pascal Maka sailed 38.86 knots, about 72 kilometres an hour, on a Jimmy Lewis board with a Gaastra sail. It was the first time a windsurfer held the outright sailing speed record. A board and a rig that one person could carry had beaten every boat.
Maka was not alone that summer. Jimmy Lewis, Erik Beale and Fred Haywood also went faster than Crossbow’s mark, and at the same event Britt Dunkerbeck became the first woman over 30 knots.
From then on windsurfers, and later kitesurfers, competed with purpose-built craft for the title of fastest on the water.